



- 



M&fflKwsaMs&WBMsai^^ 



** 



% 




WLW 








LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

wrtr? 

@)ptp ©tqapi^ji ^ftt. 

Shelf _..„-_ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Judah and Israel 



THE KINGDOM OF THE GOD OF HEAVEN 

( I>an. «- -14 ) 

AS IT IS NOW-. 

V 
AND 

THE KINGDOM OF THE SON OF DAVID 

( Dan. 7--13. 14 ) 

AS IT WILL BE. 



"^ 



^ 



Being a Careful Study and Comparison of all the 
Prominent Passages of Scripture bearing upon 
the Coming of the Messiah, the Setting 
Up of His Kingdom, and other Cor- 
relative Subjects ; and a Plain, 
Consistent, and Common Sense 
Interpretation of the 
Same. 




8 A N F R A N C I SCO : 

The Bancroft Company, Publishees, 

1888. 






V 



rt 



s 



c 



Copyrighted, 1887, by H. L. ^Chamberlain. 
All rights reserved. 

Cubery & Co., Electric Power Press. 




D^DiCSfloK. 



o tr>e Qord 

Ho 



esus, 



, trje Orjrist, and tQ< 
y Spirit, my conslant companions 
ana instructors in all rjoly trjinas, 
without wl}ose leadina ana enliarjt- 
nt trjis boor? could never 
rjave been written, to 
wrjom be alory jor- 
ever and for- 
ever, 



mei 



(l^is boo^ 



IS lOV u 



e^reel. 



dedicated 




Original of the British Coat of Arms, 200U years old. 
Page 112. 



PREFACE. 



A Special Plea to the Reader. 



It has been said that a book without a preface is 
generally not worth the reading. Now, as we believe 
this book, by virtue of the subjects treated, is eminently 
worth the reading by every man and woman who love 
the appearing of our Lord, we must needs have a pre- 
face ; first, to show why this book exists ; second, what 
is the plan and purpose of the book. 

(a) The very unsatisfactory conclusions of all the 
theories we have read or heard for forty years past, 
respecting the character, continuance, and final results 
of Christ's kingdom on earth, have led us to search the 
scriptures carefully and patiently, guided, as we believe, 
by the Holy Spirit, for a solution of the prophetic record 
that would be in harmony with God's revealed plans, 
consistent with itself, and a fair and natural interpreta- 
tion of all the scripture bearing upon this subject. It 
must also agree with the "signs of the times" which, 
after all, are the best interpreters of prophecy ; for, if 
the events predicted agree perfectly with the realised 
facts all along the line to the present, we are sure of our 



11 PREFACE. 

position and there can be no other solution. Christ him- 
self has given us the key-note. "Ye can discern the 
face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the 
times ? " 

(6) We trust we have shown in these pages that there 
is a perfect and very simple plan of God for the govern- 
ment of this world and, though the details may be intri- 
cate and not always within our grasp because of our 
want of knowledge in certain particulars, the general 
features of that plan have been so far revealed as to be 
seen and understood by all earnest and patient students 
of the word, who are willing to be led by the Spirit. 

All prophecy has one central thought, purpose, and 
object, around which every single vision or prophetic 
utterance clusters and revolves more or less remote. As 
long as astronomers stood on the earth to view our plane- 
tary system, they saw confusion where only harmony 
and regularity of motion were to be expected, some going 
one way and some another, but when one thought to 
stand on the sun, he found the fault had been in himself 
and not in the heavenly bodies ; he, with others, had 
taken a wrong point of vision. So with the prophecies 
of the Bible ; if we do not get the proper point of vision 
all is confusion and contradiction. 

Prophecy has, moreover, another phase in that much 
of it is formed into an enigma or puzzle to which there 
is one solution, and only one. Every part of the puzzle 
must fit into its proper place and in no other, and all 
parts must be there. To say that there is no plan or 
method connecting the whole, and that each part is 



PEEFACE. Ill 

independent of every other part, and lias no special re- 
lation to the whole nor to all the parts, is to charge God 
with folly in presenting a revelation to intelligent men, 
to which it is impossible to find a solution, and 
so it becomes no revelation at all ; just as if: the 
heavenly bodies were independent of each other, and 
each planet was running on its own hook. Yet this is 
the theory of many pious and learned souls who have 
undertaken to give us an interpretation of symbolic 
prophecy. Men may not always be able to find the key, 
since God has that in his own keeping, and gives it to 
whom and at what time he will. His choices in the past 
have not always been in the line of "natural selection," 
or "scientific methods," but, as a general thing, they 
have proved correct. I cannot now call to mind any 
mistakes. Those who hunger and thirst after the knowl- 
edge of God and are willing to abide His time, will 
always be satisfied. 

That the true interpretation of the prophetic record 
lies along the lines we have indicated in this volume, we 
are absolutely certain, because it fills all the required 
conditions. Whether we have been able to present the 
truth in such a way as to enlist and convince all Chris- 
tian readers, is quite another thing, for the power of the 
truth depends almost wholly on the attitude one assumes 
toward it. 

If you are a true " Berean" you will search the 
scriptures daily to see if these things are so ; not, if 
they are not so. This is the attitude you expect of 
unbelievers, and we have a right, therefore, to ask the 



IT FKEFACE. 

same of you. To have stopped to refute these various 
theories would be an endless task. We have, therefore, 
refrained as much as possible from even alluding to 
them, resting satisfied to present the truth as we feel 
assured the Spirit has given it to us, and to leave results 
with God. 

We have been solicited often to submit these strange 
interpretations to some learned divines for their indorse- 
ment. As well might Paul have been asked to submit 
to the Sanhedrim, at Jerusalem, his letters to the 
churches. Our blessed Lord was asked by his brethren 
to get the sanction of the Doctors of the law before 
going out to the people, but he chose rather to keep away 
from Jerusalem and let the people receive him on his 
merits and not by popular favor and applause. The 
Spirit indicates the same to me. 

If, after careful study of the scriptures — not the com- 
mentaries — you are convinced the puzzle is not solved 
by a fitting in of all the parts in their natural order, then 
reject it ; if, on the other hand, you find that all the 
conditions and requirements of the scriptures are met, 
then accept it as the only interpretation possible, and, 
having the courage of your convictions, proclaim them, 
for you have no time to spare. 

Far be it from me by these remarks to disparage 
the learning of the schools. They have done too much 
for the world and are being used of God to-day altogether 
too largely to be set aside with a sneer. One only pro- 
claims his own ignorance by so doing. In all matters of 
fact, historical and antiquarian research and philological 



PREFACE. V 

enquiry, they are invaluable aids to scriptural study and 
cannot be too highly prized, but in the interpretation of 
prophecy, especially symbolic prophecy, where God evi- 
dently holds the key, it must be evident that mere learn- 
ing in airv man, however holy he may be, is not going to 
solve the puzzle, many instances of which will appear as 
we proceed. Yet both the puzzle and those that have 
attempted its solution have answered God's purpose 
hitherto, and kept alive the interest of the Christian 
world in these sublime utterances respecting the latter 
day glory of the Church on earth. 

One of the most notable results of learning in its in- 
fluence upon scholars, especially Christian scholars, has 
been to create a feeling of modesty in the expression of 
opinions and to lead them to defer to the learning of 
others: so much so, that in numerous instances even 
gross errors in the domain of scientific enquiry, having 
the endorsement of some great name, have gone un- 
challenged round the world. Especially has this been 
the case in respect of the symbolic prophecies of Daniel, 
Zecheriah and John, and the Christian Church seems to 
have settled down into a chronic acceptance of certain 
interpretations, at once absurd and contradictory, with 
no one to lift a voice against them. In peace and se- 
curity the Church sleeps on at the very threshold of fiery 
trials and judgments, waiting for the learning of the 
schools to inform her when she may expect the coming 
of her Lord. That is precisely what they did in Christ's 
time eighteen hundred years ago. 

Christ sent out invitations to the wedding when he 



VI PREFACE. 

was about to leave the earth. Long ages have passed 
and the Bridegroom, waiting to receive his Kingdom, 1 
tarries, and "while he tarried they all slumbered and 
slept." Forty years ago the herald went forth with the 
cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to 
meet him, " yet we know it not, or, worse still, we heed it 
not. 

This book is sent forth under God to call your atten- 
tion, dear Christian reader, once more to the fact of the 
near approach of Christ to take his Kingdom and to re- 
ceive his bride, not to Celestial joys through the portals 
of death or the resurrection, but to the joyous festivities 
of the marriage supper in "the new heavens and the 
new earth." It is written in language and style easily 
to be understood, and though a large number of scrip- 
ture passages are quoted, there are plenty more left in 
the same line requiring your prayerful attention. We 
have confined the passages quoted strictly to the subject 
of the chapters in which they are found, and have not, 
as is so often the case, taken any passage that suited our 
purpose wheresoever we could find it. 

What is here written is only suggestive : the ex- 
haustive part' is left with the Christian reader ; and it 
will carry you through the whole range of scripture with 
intense interest and delight, as new beauties are unfolded 
in the simplicity, harmony, surpassing conciseness, and 
wealth of expression of that wonderful book called 
" The Word of God." Any departures from the text of 
the authorised version will be found in the Revised ver- 



Psalms 110-1. 



PREFACE. Vll 

sion. That the spirit of God may guide you into all 
truth, and inspire you with fresh zeal to labor for the 
coming of the Kingdom, is the sincere prayer of 

" Jezreel." 
Sari Francisco, May, 1887. 



UMMARY OF OONTENTS 



CHAPTEK. 

I. Signs of the Times. 
II. The Fathee and the Son: twofold chabactee of the 

PLAN. 

III. ISEAEL AND JUDAH ; SUBSIDIAEY AGENTS IN THE PLAN. 

IV. ISEAEL IN EUEOPE, "A MULTITUDE OF NATIONS ; " " THE 

TALL CEDAE PLANTED BY GEEAT WATEES. 

V. Spieitual Iseael in the New Woeld ; the tendee 

TWIG "PLANTED UPON AN HIGH MOUNTAIN." 

VI. The God-appointed name— Ameeica. 

VII. Mateeial endowments of the land. 

VIII. "The God of Heaven shall set up a kingdom." 

IX. The moeal and political chaeacteeistics of the 

KINGDOM. 

X. Death blow to Papacy and Impeeialism ; pivotal 

POINT OF THE AGES. 

XI. FlEEY TEIALS AND JUDGMENTS FOE CLEANSING THE KING- 
DOM. 

XII. Binding the Deagon foe a "thousand yeaes." 

XIII. "Behold, He cometh with clouds" to take the king- 

dom. 

XIV. The millennial gloey. 

XV. The New Jeeusalem. 

XVI. The eelease of the Deagon ; Cheist's peesonal com- 
ing in judgment. 



General ^ndex. 



CHAPTER I. ( Page 1.) 

SIGXS OF THE TIMES. 

Momentous Times The French Soldier — Discontent of the 
Masses The Divine Right of Kings Chess-board of Europe — 
Overthrow of Imperialism Armies of Europe Depleting Process 

Empire of Turkey Ceding of Cyprus — England's Ally — Rus- 
sia's Motives The Holy City— Impending Ruin Immigration — 
Demands of Atheists The Liquor Curse Statistics of Crime — 
Political Corruption The Mormon Problem Divorce — Desecra- 
tion of the Sabbath Christian Science -The Bright Side- Chris- 
tian Activity Moral Reform Brewers' Prayer-— Fields White to 
Harvest Religious Statistics Student Missionaries — Church 
Building — Spirit's Presence "Sinews of War"- -Intellectual Ac- 
tivity — Pangs of a New Birth- Poetry. 



CHAPTER II. (Page 39.) 

THE FATHER AND THE SON: TWO-FOLD CHARACTER OF THE PLAN. 

Indifference to Prophecy Material things of the World— Con- 
flicting Theories — First Advent- -Uncertain Predictions — Time of 
the Papacy — Second Advent Theories God's Plan- -The Garden 
—Disobedience— Promise of Restoration Justice takes its Course 
—No Pardon Offer of the Innocent— The Greek Magistrate 
Way of Transgression hard— Blood Sacrifices— Their Inadequacy 



X INDFX. 

— Necessity for Change — Judgment given to the Son — The Great 
Commission — Love Wins Love — Christ's Kingdom not of the 
World — Takes time for Success — Victory over Death — Worked 
out under present Conditions Otherwise Kedemption ends — 
Poetry. 



CHAPTER III. (Page 59.) 

JUDAH AND I31SAEL; SUBSIDIARY AGENTS IN THE PLAN. 

Influence of the Hebrew Race— Two Lines— Each with Shep- 
herding Power — One Kingly and Spiritual — The other Political 
and Martial- Ancestors of the Hebrews— Departure from Egypt — 
In the Wilderness — Life in Canaan — Consolidation under David — 
Promise of endless Reign — Elements of Decay— Secession of Ten 
Tribes — Ultimate Union— Judah's Defection — Return jrom Baby- 
lon—The Temple Rebuilt — Convulsions in the Kingdom — The last 
Prophet — Advent of Messiah — Fall of Jerusalem — End of Judah's 
Mission — Israel's Kingdom — Effects of Idolatry — Captivity — Israel 
Hidden — Their Resurrection — A New People — New Religion — 
Place of Exile — Ezekiel's Vision Assyria Conquered— Scythians 
and Sacae — Rock Temple Inscriptions — In the far East. 



CHAPTER IV. ( Page 99.) 

ISRAEL IN EUROPE, A MULTITUDE OE NATIONS ; THE TALL CEDAR 
PLANTED BY GREAT WATERS. 

The Western Migration — Sources of Information — Inducements 
to leave Armenia — Inscription proofs — Scythians and Sacse — 
Derivation of Sacae — Early occupation of Europe— On the Euxine — 
Cup of Indignation — Rome Conquered — Character of Conquerors — 
Influence upon Southern Nations — Progress North and West — 
Pushing the People— Saxon supremacy — Engels of Engel-land — 
Entrance into Britain — Fragments .of History — Saxon Influence 



INDEX. XI 

—The Northmen in Normandy — Great Imitators — Mutual Benefits 
— William in England — Norman Influence — Israel resumes her 
Name— Eetrospection — Is this the End — David's Throne — The 
latter-day Temple — Spiritual Israel its Builder. 



CHAPTER V. ( Page 119.) 

SPIRITUAL. ISRAEL IN THE NEW WORLD; THE TENDER TWIG 
"PLANTED UPON AN HIGH MOUNTAIN/' 

Critical point — Facts and Prophecy One — Conditions Imposed — 
Thus far Fulfilled — Early days of the Puritans — They remove to 
Holland — Sufferings in Starting— They remove to Ley den— Twelve 
years quiet Residence -Will move to America — Last affecting 
Meetings — On board the Speed-well for Southampton Joined by 
the Mayflower At Sea and putting Back — Final Departure— On 
the Broad Ocean— Consideration of New Heavens and New Earth 
— Old interpretations Rejected —Proofs of Symbolic character — An 
Oriental Book— Use of Symbols— One Spirit for the Whole— De- 
struction of Matter not Recognised — Moral and Political changes 
— The Sea a Home of Monsters — Sea and Abyss Interchangeable- 
No more Sea— What John Saw— Pilgrims introduced to the New 
World — New Heavens — A little one Enlarged. 



CHAPTER VI. ( Page 139.) 

THE GOD-APPOINTED NAME— AMERICA. 

Scripture use of "High Mountain" — Inappropriateness of the 
Term — Not a Symbol — Solving the Problem— Doubtful derivation 
of Name, America— Its true meaning — Was it known to Columbus 
— No mention of it — Expectations of Columbus — Indians' supply 
of Gold — The Americ Range of Mountains — Name still Retained 
— Popularised by Sailors — First Publisher of the Name — Vespuchy 
not Entitled to the Honor — Contrary to all Rule in Bestowing 



Xll INDEX. 

Names — No Chance to Deny the Honor — Columbus unable to 
Correct it— Superior advantage of New Derivation— Believes 
Vespuchy's Name of a Charge— An Aboriginal Name — Americ or 
Amerique is American. 



CHAPTER VII. ( Page 156. ) 

MATERIAL ENDOWMENTS OF THE LAND. 

Israel's "Place of their Own" — Oppressors far Removed — En- 
sign set up — Judah obeying the Call — Russia and France aiding — 
Material Blessings Promised — Palestine Devoid of Them — Spain 
the Discoverer — But does not Hold it — Vastness of the Domain — 
Adaptability to Population— A Home for All — Free of Wild Beasts 
— Yet Abounding in Forests— Old Wastes to be Occupied— A 
place of Broad Rivers and Streams — Mineral Resources — World's 
Granary — National Wealth— Recent gains— Half a World Un- 
known — A large and fat Pasture. 



CHAPTER VIII. (Page 171.) 

THE GOD OF HEAVEN SHALL SET UP A KINGDOM. 

Colonial Growth— Paternity of Kings — A new Birth Promised - 
A very Peculiar one — Nature Reversed — Bible idea of things 
Begun— Gregorian Calendar supersedes the Julian — Lunar time 
for Israel — Reasons given — Cup of Indignation— After- pangs of a 
Nation's Birth — Character of the Stripling A Political kingdom - 
" In the Days of these Kings " — Cut out of the Mountain — Antago- 
nistic to Imperialism — Therefore Republican Only two kinds — 
Cannot exist Harmoniously — Must Destroy all Opposition — Prin- 
ciples Involved — Political Israel God's Battle axe — Spiritual 
Israel a Theocratic Republic. 



INDEX. Xlll 

CHAPTER IX. ( Page 191. 1 

THE MORAL AND POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KINGDOM. 

The Vision of Ezekiel — Division of Canaan — Levi Reinstated— 
Thirteen Divisions — The Sons of Zadoc — Service to the Nation — 
The Sanctuary in the Midst — The Second Gathering- — Choice of 
one Head — A New Covenant— A New Name — One Language 
Married to the Land— A Land of Homes Number of Farmers — 
Investment in Farms -Genera] Intelligence Blind see and the 
Deaf Hear — First Asylum Happy Children Security of High- 
ways — The One Religious Festival of Thanksgiving Passover and 
Pentecost of no Significance The Chinese Named The Ethiopi- 
ans in Chains— Control of Commerce -Nobility of Europe as Real 
Estate owners— Our Sea-board Safe —Perpetual Peace Assured 
Clear cut Outline. 



CHAPTER X. i Page 212.) 

DEATH-BLOW TO PAPACY AND IMPERIALISM: PIVOTAL POINT 
OF THE AGES. 

The Mystery of the Ages— Duration of the 1260 years Rise of 
Papacy- Early Edicts— Valentian and Theodosius Code of Jus- 
tinian — Exarchate of Ravenna— Pepin of France Uncertainty of 
Dates The Apocalypse in its proper Divisions Conditions Im- 
posed — Gloom of the Church— Condition of Europe in 18th 
Century- -The Wesleys and Whitefield The Great Awakening— 
The Church in America— The Two Witnesses -The Bible a Sealed 
Book -Rome's Hatred of it— French Revolution— Churches De- 
spoiled—Bible and Mass Books burned -Goddess of Reason 
Worshiped— God Dethroned— Dead in the Streets of Sodom - 
The great Earthquake Carry le's Description— Work of the Guillo- 
tine—Priests Destroyed— Edge of the Abyss— King and Queen 
Beheaded The Pope a Prisoner Death in Exile Resurrection 



XIV INDEX. 

of the Witnesses — The Shout of the Angels — End of the Mystery 
—The Judgment upon the Beast. 



CHAPTEK XL (Page 245.) 

FIERY TRIALS AND JUDGMENTS FOR CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 

Judgment not Ended — Tares in the Wheat — Yials of Wrath — 
The Sixth Plague— The great Earthquake— Cleansing the Land 
and the Temple— Rewards of Iniquity — Survival of the Fittest — 
The Judgment of the Sword— God's Deliverance — Unpalatable 
Methods — God's Noble Army — Enormity of the Crime — Not a 
question of Expediency — Desperate Character of the Foe — Covet- 
ousness— Robbing the Poor— Divorce and Mormonism — Sabbath 
Desecration — Example of our Rulers — The Church largely Respon- 
sible — Opposition of Infidels — Their Demands — Christian Organi- 
sation — Foretaste of Trials — Hiding from the Storm — Judgment 
to the Line — What will you Answer. 

CHAPTER XII. ( Page 267.) 

BINDING THE DRAGON FOR A THOUSAND YEARS. 

An Accepted Theory — A Pleasant One — Rule of Interpretation 
— The Six Factors — Uniform Values to Symbols— Beasts out of 
the Sea — War in Heaven — Zeeheriah's Vision — Satan in Person 
not there— Israel versus Imperialism — Key, Chain and Abyss, as 
Symbols — Substance of the Vision — The Last Conflict— Delayed 
for a Purpose— Elements of the Conflict — The Dragon Quiescent 
for a long Period. 

CHAPTER XIII. ( Page 278.) 

BEHOLD HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS TO TAKE THE KINGDOM. 

Graphic Descriptions — Efforts to Solve the Puzzle — God's pur- 
pose Answered — Intent of John's Vision — Grace not Limited— 



INDEX. XV 

The Tables Turned— The true Victory— God's Conflict with 'the 
Nations— The Great Trumpet— Gathering the Elect— Apathy of 
the Church— Every eye shall See Him -The Consumption Decreed 
— A Fountain Opened — He cometh with Clouds The Ascension 
at Olivet- His like Return Clouds as Symbols Their Values— 
His Coming to the Churches of Asia— God's Moral epochs Quiet 
Affairs— One of Ancient Days— One Like a Son of Man— A Willing 
Offering— The Midnight Cry — Expectation of the Marvelous— 
The Marriage Supper. 



CHAPTER XIV. i Page 30] . ) 

THE MILLENNIAL GUORY. 

Christ on the Throne Paul's Vision — Conflict and Sorrow 
Hitherto— Reduced Physical Powers Plan to Save the Race 
Those best Fitted to live— Smile of Heaven upon them A Purer 
Atmosphere— No more curses heard Present Developments Con- 
sidered Advancement by Evolution Nothing Irruptive Victory 
by Faith Teachings of the Church Increasing Faith An easy 
Victory— Holiness unto the Lord — Dawning of better Days -The 
first Resurrection -" Healing of the Nations "- Bruising the Ser- 
pent's head The whole Creation Groaneth — Victory over Death 
Tears from off all Faces— New beauties Perceived — No end to the 
Prospect — Unappreciated Blessings — Brief Mention — Regaining 
lost Energy — The true Interpretation. 



CHAPTER XV. ( Page 324.) 

THE NEW JERUSALEM. 

A literal Reading — Its Absurdity Shown Beauty of the Sym- 
bolism — Value of the Symbol — The Language of Gems — Well 
known to the Ancients — Expressive of Spiritual Truths — The 
Living Temple— God Magnified — The Branch of the Lord — The 



XVI INDEX. 

Prospect before Us The Tables turned on Satan — Angels Ascend- 
ing and Descending — The Holy City already Descended — But few 
now Walking its Streets — More Welcomed — Countless Hosts of 
the Future. 



CHAPTER XVI. (Page 334.) 

THE RELEASE OF THE DRAGON; CHRIST^ PERSONAL COMING 
IN JUDGMENT. 

Satan loosed from his Prison — No more Satan now than Before 
- -Natural Division of the Apocalypse — Scriptural Explanations — 
End of the Thousand Years — A Limited Time — Reappearance of 
the Dragon- Renewal of the old War — From the same old Quarter 
— Consigned to the Abyss from which he came — Age of Christ's 
reign not Limited by a Thousand Years- An Endless Reign — An 
exhausted Earth Then cometh the End — Judgment of the Finally 
Impenitent -Descent of the Lord Himself — The Earth reserved 
unto Fire — Resurrection of the Saints — Instantaneous Change — 
Ever with the Lord — No return to Earth — An Incorruptible Body 

All power Relegated to the Father. 



CHAPTER I. 

SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 

" And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the king- 
dom of God should come, he answered them and said, the kingdom 
of God cometh not with outward show. Neither shall they say. 
lo here! or, lo there! for behold the kingdom of God is among you." 
(Luke 17-20, 21). 

" Behold the tig tree, and all the trees ; when they now shoot 
forth ye see and know of your own selves that Summer is now nigh 
at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see all these things come to pass, 
know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." (Luke 21- 
29, 30). 

That we are living in peculiar and even momentous 
times no one will for a moment dispute. They are times 
which find no parallel in any age of the world's history 
of which we know. As the telegraph and the press bring 
to us daily and even hourly the quick-beating pulsations 
of the world, they seem to tell us that the moral and 
political forces of the earth are putting themselves in 
array for a struggle of such mighty proportions that 
old earth herself promises to "reel to and fro like a 
drunken man " under the heavy tread of men, angels, and 
demons, combatants for victory or death. 

The exhuberant exclamation of the soldier of Napo- 
leon's army when crossing the Alps seems likely to be 
realised. Looking back from a lofty height whence he 
could see the immense army filing and defiling up the 



THE COMING KINGDOM. 



mountain sides, surrounded on every hand by lofty peaks 
and overhanging crags, he could contain himself no 
longer, but stepping aside from his comrades he shouted 
in thunder tones : Attention, the Universe ! ! Wheel 
by kingdoms ! What was thus spoken in extatie 
rapture seems on the eve of fulfillment as we be- 
hold in the old world the marshalling of forces never 
before dreamed of for number and gigantic armament, 
and hear the low rumbling of distant armies taking 
their appointed places for the last great conflict of the 
ages. 

On all sides the murmurings of discontent, the deep 
undertone of the wailing masses, bubbling, seething,, 
and often boiling into open outbreak, give premonition 
of the coming storm. Nothing but force, based upon 
the old idea that " might makes right," keeps these pent 
up waters from bursting their barriers and engulfing 
thrones and dominions in one common maelstrom of 
destruction. Only He who now restrains will continue 
to restrain until the cup of indignation is full, "to exe- 
cute upon them the judgments written" 

" The divine right of kings " has proved a costly and 
burdensome pageant and the people have begun to trace 
many of the burdens of life to this cause, which imposes 
oppressive taxation upon the untitled masses for its sup- 
port, for the benefit of the privileged few. Police sur- 
veillance consequent upon this condition of things, 
besides entailing immense cost, weighs like an incubus 
upon free thought respecting this huge assumption of a 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



by-gone age, and they desire to have done with it at once 
and forever. 

As these burdens become more and more oppressive 
and irksome, those who can flee from them without too 
great a sacrifice will be driven to this and other lands 
where greater freedom may be enjoyed and where life 
may be made more productive of happiness. 

The political chess-board of Europe is just now one 
of mighty significance for the future well being of the 
world. Premising, without argument, a reign of peace 
just previous to and for long ages after the coming of 
Christ to take his kingdom, which was prefigured by the 
seven years of peace and the shutting of the Roman 
temple of Janus on the occasion of Christ's first advent^ 
let us see, as briefly as may be, some of the "signs of 
the times " which we perceive foreshadowed in scripture 
and realised in our days, for a permanent peace, upon the 
exhaustion and final overthrow of the powers that to-day 
represent old Imperial Rome, which gave her power and 
her seat of empire to the Papacy for the persecution of 
the saints and the destruction of the church of God. 

That these powers are to be overthrown and Imperial- 
ism be cast into the " abyss " for a " thousand years " or 
co-existent with the reign of Christ on earth, is clearly 
written in the scriptures, as we hope to prove in coming 
chapters. What we may say here of the " signs of the 
times" pointing to this end is simply a matter of private 
judgment and may be taken for what it is worth as a 
standpoint from which to watch these movements and 



THE COMING KINGDOM. 



see the unfolding of God's plan for the overthrow of the 
nations that have given their power to the "beast" for 
ages past,, as saith the prophet: 

" Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the £»ord, until the day 
that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather 
the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon 
them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger; for all the 
earth shall he devoured with the fire of my jealousy." (Zeph. 
3-8). 

" And the angel thrust in his sickle into the eai*th. and cast 
it into the great wine-press of the wrath of €Jod." (Rev. 
14-19). 

" For THEUJ will I turn to the people a pure language, that 
they may call upon the name of the I>ord to serve him 
with one consent." (Zeph. 3-9) . 

The destruction of Imperialism and the Papacy seems 
to be an absolute pre-requisite of Christ's reign of peace 
on the earth, since they are diametrically opposed, the 
one to the other, and cannot exist in peace together. 
Between them there has always been, and there will 
always be antagonism until one or the other is destroyed. 
To this end, the powers that to-day represent the old 
Roman imperialism are being exhausted by the tremen- 
dous cost of their standing armies and navies. Ten 
millions of men drawn from the active fields of produc- 
tive industry, and ready at thirty days' notice to take 
the field, are a sight never before seen, and a burden 
which the nations cannot long maintain without bank- 
ruptcy. 

Russia alone is able, on an emergency, to put fiye 
millions of men in the field, and these are being drilled 
for that possible emergency. What towering accumu- 
lations of debt are being entailed by these exhaustive 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



preparations in the European kingdoms ! Since the 
Franco-German war of 1870. France has accumulated a 
debt of seven billions of dollars, and her annual deficit 
now, with all her returning trade and industries, is two 
hundred millions of francs. Many writers, seeing this 
state of things, are declaring that war is the only safety- 
valve for the preservation of the nations. 

Since the Russo-Tivrkish war, Russia has borrowed 
an average of one hundred millions of dollars annually, 
and her debt is now ten times more than it was in the 
Crimean war. There is now no market for her bonds 
either in England or Germany, and she is seeking in 
France for a new loan, with very indifferent success. 

Instead, however, of disarming and settling down to 
the peaceful avocations of life, they are constantly aug- 
menting their forces and armaments under a fearful 
foreboding of something (they hardly know what) for 
which they seem impelled to prepare as by an unseen, 
all-powerful, irresistible force. Yet they cannot precipi- 
tate the battle if they would, until this depleting process 
has done its work almost to the point of ruin, and the 
command goes forth: " Thrust in thy sickle and reap; 
for the time has come for thee to reap; for the harvest of 
the earth" — the Roman political and ecclesiastical 
world—" is ripe." (Rev. U-15). 

This depleting process must continue, therefore, to a 
point just previous to complete exhaustion, so that when 
the final defeat comes, it may be so crushing, so ruinous, 
that long ages of peace will be gladly accepted for recu- 



? HE COMING KINGDOM. 



peration. In the meantime, the principles of arbitration 
for all international disputes will have so far prevailed 
as to make it very nearly impossible for any nation to in- 
augurate *a war on any such pretexts as have heretofore 
prevailed. Add to this that many of the questions now 
at issue will be settled forever by this very war, and it is 
plain to be seen that inferior questions will not be worth 
the powder for a resort to arms between any of the great 
powers, who will also take upon themselves the task of 
settling in an amicable way all disputes between second 
and third-rate nations. Should any serious disputes 
arise between the two great powers themselves, which 
seem difficult of settlement, the United States will, 
doubtless, act the part of peacemaker and give righteous 
judgment. 

We shall, therefore, hear of " wars and rumors of wars," 
but the end is not yet, though removed by only a few 
years. The "septennate" war-measure of Germany, 
recently passed, may possibly help us in our calculations. 
But that the defeat is to be final and overwhelming to 
the representatives of Roman imperialism and the 
papal hierarchy, is clear and unmistakable, as may be 
gathered from Eze. 38th and 39th chapters, and Rev. 
16-16 to 20, and corroborated by the "signs of the 
times." 

The same process of depletion that characterises the 
representatives of imperial power is also going on in the 
Empire of Turkey ; but the process in her case is modi- 
fied somewhat by the prophetic record which declares 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



that her end shall be like the drying up of a river by 
cutting off all the streams of supply, rather than by 
revolution and a final disastrous conflict as with the 
greater powers. (Rev. 16-12). This process has been 
going on since 1826, when Greece cut loose from the Tar- 
tarian grasp of Turkey and set up for herself. Next fol- 
lowed Egypt, bringing her victorious forces, in 1833, to 
the very gates of the Bosphorus and the Imperial City. 
Bat for the intervention of England, and the withdrawal 
of the support of France, the Empire would undoubt- 
edly have fallen. But God had decreed otherwise. She 
recovered lost provinces by conceding much to Egypt, 
who continued to acknowledge suzerainty by paying 
tribute until 1866, when much larger concessions were 
peaceably effected, and in 1872 Egypt became entirely 
independent of the Porte. 

In the Russo-Turkish war of 1876, nearly all the 
European territory of Turkey was wrested from her, 
for, while the two parties to the conflict were facing 
each other in martial array, four or five of her principal 
provinces slipped away and set up housekeeping for 
themselves, leaving to her only the territory south of 
the Balkans, including Macedonia. It is a very notable 
fact, and one worthy of record, that in all that war, 
continuing for a period of three years, not a notable 
or decisive battle was fought at any point. The siege 
of Plevna came the nearest to anything decisive, and 
that was simply a starvation process, and that ended 
the war ; yet Turkey had at various points and in the 



THE COMING KINGDOM. 



field from 250,000 to 300,000 men, eating out her vitals. 

To add to her discomfiture and final ruin, England 
must needs assume to be the "mutual friend" at the 
Berlin conference in the person of Disraeli, and, by the 
most consummate assurance, with the acquiescence of 
Germany, compelled Russia to accept and Turkey to 
pay a money indemnity, which of all things she could 
least spare, instead of a land indemnity in Asiatic-Tur- 
key, which of all things she could best spare, and what 
above all earthly possessions Russia most desired. Two 
little ports on the west side of the Black Sea were all 
she was allowed to receive. This deep wound to her 
pride, and defeat of her pet scheme of conquest in that 
direction have caused her more chagrin and deep seated 
hatred of England than all other causes combined, and, 
if we mistake not, will transfer the battle ground of the 
final conflict from Europe to Asia. Let us see. 

To add, if possible, still further to the discomfiture 
of Russia, and to show the far-reaching sagacity and 
prescience of England's Prime Minister, Disraeli, a 
private bargain was made with the Porte, outside of the 
Berlin conference while it was still in session, by which 
the island of Cyprus was ceded to England, 1 
and a "protectorate " accorded to her over the whole of 
Asia-Minor. This was a most important concession, 
both in its relations with Syria and Palestine on the 
mainland, and as a barrier for the Suez Canal and Egypt. 
Europe was for a moment astonished at the audacity of 



Recently confirmed and ratified. 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



the scheme, and its significance — as related to India 
with its vast populations — as. a military rendezvous, in 
case of need, by way of the canal. A more consummate 
piece of political jugglery and impudence throughout the 
whole transaction, was never before witnessed in modern 
times, for who does not know that a " protectorate," 
with England, means nothing more than final occupation 
and acquisition, when the " sick man of Europe " be- 
comes comatose or expires and his estate is divided. 

Thus a Jew of the house of Judah leads political 
Israel of the house of Joseph (as we hope to prove in 
its proper place) to the possession of her old time 
inheritance, under the guiding hand of Him who "moves 
in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform." Truly, 
Joseph is fulfilling his mission, for " his horns are like 
the horns of unicorns ; with them he shall push the 
people together to the ends of the earth; and they are 
the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thous- 
ands of Manasseh." (Deut. 33-17). 

"The signs of the times," corroborated by scripture, 
point also to Germany as the ally of England in the 
great conflict, when she shall have accomplished her 
great life purpose of a consolidated Empire of German 
speaking people. This must now be at the expense of 
Austria who will be compensated, very probably, by 
the division of European Turkey, if not by the incor- 
poration of the Balkan provinces into a confederacy of 
of Schlavic peoples. Then, "Euphrates" being dried 
up "that the way of the kings from the sun rising 



10 



THE COMING KINGDOM. 



might be prepared," these two nations, England and 
Germany, will be compelled to join hands for a life or 
death struggle with the Northern Bear for world wide 
supremacy. Other southern nations, remnants of the 
old-time kingdoms, will probably join Russia for the 
righting of their special grievances, or for some hope of 
gain. 

That England and Germany are financially better 
prepared for this struggle than any of the other nations 
of Europe, seems to be a well established fact. That 
they will come out of it victorious and retain their 
supremacy, no one will deny who is at all acquainted 
with the Bible and historical records ; see Gen. 22-17 : 
Jer. 51-19, 20, 21. The "manifest destiny" of political 
Israel, represented principally in these two nations, is 
impelling them towards old-world empire, "that in 
Isaac and his seed all the nations of- the earth may he 
blessed." The union of these two factors in the world's 
destiny, with any other of the northern Teutonic nations 
who may choose to fall into line, is not yet, but the 
progress of events in the near future will compel it. 

The impelling motive of Russia, however, for the 
world's empire is born of a very different spirit, and 
partakes largely of an insatiable desire and lust of 
imperial power as with old Rome, and the underlying 
impulse is the same in both — the spirit of all evil. 

England's interference, therefore, with her pet scheme 
of conquest in the direction of Asia Minor, Jerusalem 
and other sacred places of the Holy Land, a southern 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 11 

capital and kingdom, and a southern naval outlet, have 
secured for her an ill-disguised hatred that only waits 
the divine permit to hurl itself with superhuman 
vengeance on whatever stands in her way. 

Another object had in view by Russia in her schemes 
of aggrandisement is the consolidation of the scattered 
and divided members of the Eastern or Greek church, 
numbering in all nearly ninety millions, under one 
political, and, perhaps, spiritual head, with the "holy 
city " as a capital with all its hallowed associations and 
inspiring history clustering around it. The "holy city" is 
the ultimate objective point of Russia's desires, what- 
ever may be her present operations and outlook, all signs 
pointing to the acquisition of Constantinople as the end 
of her aspirations to the contrary notwithstanding. 
These have only been a feint to deceive the European 
powers or blind them as to her real purpose. In the 
division of what is left of Turkey in Europe, doubtless, 
Greece would largely share, since a promise to that 
effect was given by England at the Berlin Conference 
and not yet realised. Of course Albania and Macedonia 
would naturally fall to her, and Austria might take the 
rest. 

At the close of the Russo-Turkish war, both Germany 
and Russia hinted to Austria that she was at liberty to 
help herself to what provinces she desired, but she didn't 
seem to take the hint. At last she was told outright by 
Bismarck to help herself, but such unwonted generosity 
was unappreciated. She must have felt that sometime 



12 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



an equivalent would be required of her which she might 
not be willing to give. It will be required of her when 
the time comes, all the same, with or without equivalent 
territory, and the requirement will be the half of her 
kingdom, with its back-bone — the German speaking peo- 
ple with their territory. 

In this scheme of a southern capital at Jerusalem it is 
possible, and to me seems probable that the western 
Papal church, which has an equal interest in the holy 
places of "Jerusalem," may find sufficient inducements 
looking to the re-establishment of her coveted temporal 
power, to lead her to lay aside, for the time being at 
least, some of her assumptions in order that the " deadly 
wound" may be healed. There have been many and 
mutual excommunications by the Eastern and Western 
churches in all ages up to the time of Leo X. in 1054, 
A. D. Then the separation was final, and the ostensible 
cause of its finality was the introduction by the Latin or 
Western church of two words— filioque — into the creed. 
It was this addition which was, and still remains, the 
permanent cause of separation. 1 

This profound theological question, so all-important 
to the parties in dispute was, simply, whether the Holy 
Spirit proceeded from the Father alone, which the Greek 
church holds, or conjointly from the Father and the Son 
— filioque — as the Western church holds. This, and 
the assumption of papal supremacy have kept these two 
churches apart since the fifth century, when the Latin 

1 Ency. Britt. 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 13 



church may be said to have commenced its career as an 
independent church. It may be counted among the 
probabilities that these differences may be laid aside for 
an all-absorbing purpose by mutual concessions. In this 
lies the ruin of the Latin church, for the impending 
calamity that will overtake the " Prince of Rosh, 
Mesheck, and Tubal," in his championship of the Latin 
nations, will bring remediless ruin and utter annihilation 
to that church as a Roman, ecclesiastical, hierarchy! 1 

" And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone 
and cast it into the sea, saying : ' Thus with violence shall 
Babylon be thrown down.' " (Rev. 1S-21). 

"Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, chief prince of Rosh. 
Mesheck, and Tubal, * * * and I Mill plead against him with 
pestilence and blood; and I -will rain upon him and upon his 
bauds, and upon the many people that are with him, * * * 
Persia, dish, and Put, * * * an overflowing rain, and great 
hailstones, fire and brimstone, * * * and I will turn thee 
back, and will leave but the sixth part of thee." (Eze. 38-3, 5, 
22). 

"So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their 
God from that day and forward." (39-22). 

But now having portrayed what seems to us the trend 
of events, and some of the underlying causes of the com- 
ing political conflict of Europe in the not distant future, 
let us turn our attention t5 our own beloved land and see 
what are the " signs of the times " for us. If the con- 
test in the old world is for the supremacy of imperialism 

1 Since writing the above I have been pleased to see that a 
political writer in The Nineteenth Century magazine of London, 
for May, takes, from a purely political standpoint, the very results 
I have assumed, save in respect of the Papacy and Russia's de- 
signs ou Asia and Palestine; of these he says nothing, but pro- 
ceeds to show, conclusively, why England should cultivate closer 
relations with Germany, — and she will. 



14 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



under the instigation of Satan, as against constitutional 
government represented by England or (as we assume) 
'political Israel, then we may naturally expect that the 
same spirit of all evil will force the conflict with spirit, 
ual Israel, on this side the water, on moral questions- 
This is precisely what is going on to-day. 

The tremendous strain upon the resources of Europe, 
caused by these huge preparations for war and the re- 
sulting taxation, has, for many years past, been sending 
to our shores immerse numbers of all classes cf people — 
good, bad, and indifferent. Such an influx of foreign 
element into the midst of a peaceful people is unpre- 
cedented in the history of the world. In any country 
but ours it would produce the wildest alarm, if not revo- 
lution and bloodshed. The peculiar nature of our in- 
stitutions, and the wonderful provision which God has 
made in domain and resources, enable us to receive and 
assimilate these vast multitudes, and millions upon 
millions more who have yet to come, provided they are 
all industrious and law-abiding citizens. Unfortunately 
a large proportion of them are imbued to a greater or 
less extent with the socialist, nihilist, and anarchist 
views of the middle and lower classes of European life. 
Finding the restrictions of the old world too exacting 
for their peace and safety, many leaders and other promi- 
nent men among them have come over to this country to 
plant here their noxious theories, and develop their 
plots for the overthrow of society. 

Not satisfied with the fullest freedom of thought and 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 15 



opinion, they have determined that any public recogni- 
tion by the Government of the Christian religion, above 
the Muhammadan or Heathem religions, is a usurpation 
of privilege and power, and inimical to the spirit of 
liberty. Their vaunted love of liberty is simply a love 
of license by which every man hopes to do according to 
his own sweet will. Of late years they have associated 
with the Atheists and Infidels of the country, and to- 
gether they are making of Congress in the most open 
and unblushing manner the following demands, which 
are placed at the head of their paper, The Boston Index. 

(1) We demand that churches and other ecclesiastical 
property shall no longer be exempt from just taxation ; 

(2) that chaplains in all institutions aided by public 
funds, be discontinued, (3) and all religious services 
abolished; (4) that the Bible, as a text-book or as a book 
of worship in public schools, be prohibited; (5) that the 
appointment of religious festivals and fasts by President 
or Governors shall wholly cease; (6) that the judicial 
oath in all departments of government be abolished, and 
simple afnirination substituted; (7) that all laws enforc- 
ing Sunday as the Sabbath shall be repealed; (8) that all 
laws enforcing "Christian morality" be repealed; (9) 
no privilege conceded to Christianity or any special 
religion; (10) that government shall be founded and ad- 
ministered on a purely secular basis. 

They are organizing in every considerable town and 
city for the accomplishment of their purpose, founding 
their demands upon the fact that God is not distinctly 



16 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

recognised in the Constitution and, therefore, govern- 
ment has no right to favor the Christian religion above 
any others. They wholly ignore the fact that all our 
institutions were founded and built up on the Christian 
sentiment of the people, which had its roots deep-laid in 
the word of God. Such is the " liberal " Christianity of 
infidels. France tried that kind of Christianity to her 
sorrow and we want none of it, yet Christian ministers 
are found favoring the secular idea of government, of 
which the above is the natural and logical conclusion. 
Does not the public conscience need to be aroused on 
this and kindred topics that threatened dangers may be 
avoided ? 

Then we must add to these the liquor dealers of the 
country, to a very large extent foreigners who, for the 
huge gains of their traffic, bid defiance to the laws and 
hesitate not to make threats against the lives and prop- 
erty of those who oppose them in their nefarious busi- 
ness. They carry out their threats too, as four instances 
of cold-blooded, premeditated murder of late will testify. 
They are necessarily hand in hand with the classes we- 
have already mentioned, because one spirit from Tar- 
tarus animates them all, and they find in each other their 
best friends and patrons. The vile and maddening com- 
pounds constituting their stock in trade inflame the 
the passions, deaden the moral perceptions, destroy the 
body, and steal away the honest earnings of vast num- 
bers who otherwise would be sober, industrious and 
thrifty citizens. Careful estimates from census reports 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 17 

place the direct amount spent for liquors in this country 
at the enormous figures of seven hundred and fifty mill- 
ions of dollars, and the resultant expenses will swell the 
amount five hundred millions more. The direct expense 
is distributed among fourteen million five hundred 
thousand drinkers at a cost per capita of nearly fifty 
dollars. Of this vast number of drinkers, sixty thou- 
sand go annually to a drunkard's grave, their places to 
be filled by the long line of followers pressing on behind, 
from the boy who takes his wine at his father's table or 
the young man at his "club," to the bloated and ruined 
soul just ready to drop over into perdition. But for this 
cursed habit of drink men would be able to tide over 
times of depression. Vast numbers would own their 
homes for themselves, and would be less liable to join 
the godless, inflamed and turbulent classes whose shib- 
boleth is, " Death to the bondholder." 

But the cost of liquor drinking is not alone in money. 
If that was all the cost, it might be endured, but it costs 
immensely in other directions, and entails injuries and 
heart-aches that are quite beyond all figures to compute. 
"Four-fifths of the inmates of our jails, prisons, peni- 
tentiaries, and reformatories are brought there, directly 
or indirectly, by strong drink. There are five hundred 
thousand of these whisky criminals in the United States 
to-day. Every institution that is open for their recep- 
tion is full of them, and the number is rapidly increas- 
ing. Then there are eight hundred thousand idiots, 
insane persons, helpless inebriates and paupers in the 



18 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



poor-houses and charitable institutions of the country, 
costing the taxpayers one hundred millions of dollars. 
But this is not all. Most of the criminality which costs 
the public so much money, is directly traceable to this 
one parent vice of drinking. This is not all. " No pen 
but the Eecording Angel's is able truthfully to portray 
the sorrow that is inflicted upon loving hearts by this in- 
fernal habit of drinking stimulants. No class is so high 
in the social scale that it is not dragged down by it, and 
no class is so poor and degraded that it is not ^rnade 
more inhuman and miserable by it. Science shows how 
vice of any kind vitiates the blood and, although it 
may skip one generation, it is sure to crop out farther 
down the stream. A dead drunkard often reaches out 
his hand from the grave, and with his skeleton fingers 
palsies the brain of his dependents and sends them, like 
so many jabbering idiots, to the insane asylum to be 
supported by charity. The . liquor traffic must be 
characterised as an unmixed curse, viewed from any 
standpoint whatever, and as such it does not pay." 

Surely Paul's description of certain classes in his day 
will apply with redoubled emphasis in these " latter 
days." 

"Filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, 
covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, de- 
ceit, malignity ; back -biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, 
boasters. 1XVEKTORS OF EVIL. THINGS," (bombs and in- 
fernal machines?) "disobedient to parents, -without under- 
standing, covenant breakers, without natural affection, impla- 
cable, unmerciful." (Rom. 1-29, 31;. 

How true to the character of many of these self-styled 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 19 

" lovers of liberty." Said one of these, a "prison bird," 
at an ovation given to him in New York, in a fierce tirade 
against the press, addressing its reporters, " You ought 
to be hung! and when Anarchy prevails you will be hung 
in a batch. You are marked men." Commenting upon 
this the next day, one of the city papers said these true 
words. " Thev never cease to mouth about liberty, and 
name their organ ' Freiheit,' but all the time they mean 
liberty for themselves and subjection and death for all 
who dare to differ with them in opinion. They are a lot 
of loafing, lazy tyrants, usually drunken and always 
filthy either in person or in speech." These, then, are 
the people whom the spirit of all evil has moved to 
come over here to demolish, if possible, our God-given 
institutions, and bring upon us the judgments of 
Heaven. " Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet 
thee at thy coming," O thou son of David, King of Peace! 
The powers of darkness seem bent on holding high 
carnival over the destruction of all we hold dear on eaxth, 
and carrying us back to the darkest days of the Bastile 
and the Guillotine. 

But there are large numbers of people in every large 
community who have no sympathy with either of the 
above classes; men of standing, of education, of benevo- 
lent instincts, and of social position, who declare with 
emphasis that there is no need of the Church, and 
the God of the Bible. They think science and educa- 
tion are sufficient to lift men up and make them better. 
More education and culture they want, and less church 



20 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

and less religion. But men are not lifted up and made 
better by these means alone, but in this nineteenth cen- 
tury, when popular education prevails everywhere, es- 
pecially in these United States, and every means are 
afforded for culture and enlightenment, we are appar- 
ently growing worse and worse, just as the word of God 
eighteen centuries ago said we should. 

"This know, also, that in the last days erilous times 
shall come ; for men shall he lovers of themselves, coasters, 
blasphemers, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, 
headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure more than lovers 
of Hod, having a form of godliness hut denying the power 
thereof; from such turn away. For of ihis sort are they 
which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden 
with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning and 
never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." (2 Tim. 3-1 to 
7 inclusive). 

See yourselves reflected, men of the world, in this 
faithful portraiture, and say to which class you belong. 
Your position on certain moral questions which are sure 
to come up in the near future for your decision, will 
show you precisely where you belong in spite of your- 
selves if you are not willing to own it now, for this is 
not the end of it ; 

"But evil men and seducers shall wax WORSE and 
WORSE, deceiving and being deceived" (Ver. 13), " and mens' 
hearts shall fail them for fear of those things that are coming 
on the earth." (I.u. 31 -26) . 

If, as it is said, " figures don't lie," we are presenting 
a curious spectacle to the Christian philanthropist, as 
well as to the world at large, when it is shown that in 
every thousand of the population in England two die 
every year of strong drink ; in Scotland, three ; 
Ireland, two ; France, two ; Switzerland, three ; Swe- 
den, six ; and in New York State, tivelve, and in many 



SIGNS OP THE TIMES. 21 



other States a much larger proportion. The ratio of 
murders per million of inhabitants has been in England. 
711 ; in Ireland, 883 ; in France, 796 ; in Germany, 887: 
in the United States, 2,260/ We have become nearly 
as bad as Italy and Spain, those hot-beds of crime. 

Is it not a " sign of the times " that a contest of no 
mean proportions is upon us for which the mightiest 
energies of the nation will be taxed for our preserva- 
tion ? Yet the strange spectacle is presented to our 
eyes, of ministers of the gospel, doctors of divinity 
even, elders, deacons, and many of the rank and file of 
the church militant, who are voting and speaking in a 
way that tends to the continuance of the saloon nuisance, 
and are hailed with acclamations as "men of sense," 
men of " liberal ideas, 1 ' while they lay it to their souls 
with flattering unction that they are endeavoring to 
suppress the loathsome pest. Why then do the saloon- 
ists claim them as friends ? Is it not a sure evidence 
that the " deceiver " is abroad in the land and deceiving 
" the very elect ?'' If God is pledged to rain upon his 
old-time cohorts in the old world a ' ; horrible tempest," 
think you not the same doom awaits the hosts of Satan 
in this land, albeit, it may be by a different process? 
Nor are these all the evils that threaten to engulf us. 
by any means. 

Closely connected with and growing out of this in- 
ordinate love of money, is the festering corruption of 
political life in its connection with the saloon, which 

1 Joseph Cook in ' Boston Lectures.' 



22 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

virtuous men recognise as a threatening' danger to the 
Republic. In support oi this statement we cannot do 
better than append the following testimony of an emi- 
nant public man. 1 Among other things he said: — 

" The corrupt use of money is, in my judgment, one 
of the most dangerous evils which now threaten the 
future of the Republic. It is the blighting, festering- 
source of many of the other evils of which we com- 
plain. It is sapping the very foundations of public 
confidence and respect for law, by polluting the sources 
of political power. It stalks with brazen face into our 
legislative halls, and with scarcely a pretense of con- 
cealment dictates our laws, It too often corrupts the 
press, and changes the truth into a lie. It is the ready 
and well-known instrument by which the will of the 
people is thwarted in a thousand ways. It is the effi- 
cient means by which individual wealth and corporate 
power aggrandise themselves at the expense of the peo- 
ple, and by which giant evils maintain their hold upon 
society. Let it be generally understood and acquiesced 
in that elections depend not upon the free will of the 
people, but that their results are purchased with money, 
or whisky, and the end of free institutions is not far off. 

Upon the ruins of Judah is written "Idolatry;" of 
Greece and Rome, " Sensuality ;" of Spain, " Avarice ;" 
and upon the ruins of the Great Republic will be writ- 
ten " Corruption," unless there be virtue enough in the 

1 Hon. William Windoni, formerly United States Senator from 
Minnesota, in a public Fourth of July address at Woodstock, Conn. 



SIGNS OT THE TIMES. 2B 



people to rescue it from the bottomless abyss toward 
which its steps are tending. Combine and aggregate 
all the other corrupting agencies and influences of our 
times, and they are dwarfed beside the Liquor Power. 
Indeed, but few of the other methods of corruption are 
complete without it I know of no other agency which 
openly proclaims its right and its purpose to control 
elections, and to prevent the passage of distasteful laws 
by the use of money. 

In most of our cities the drinking saloon is the cen- 
tral power around which politics revolve, and which 
dictates candidates and party policies. Even in our 
National elections it sometimes exercises a controlling 
influence and decides Presidential contests. By the 
peculiar relation of political parties, New York has be- 
come a pivotal State. The saloons rule the city, the 
city rules the State, and the State decides what shall be 
the ruling power of the Republic. AVe are. therefore, 
to all intents and purposes, a rum-ruled nation." 

The "Mormon problem " is acknowledged by all good 
men to be a blot upon our fair escutcheon, and one 
not only difficult to deal with, but one which threatens 
to spread its baleful influence through all our Western 
Territories. Religious zeal in error limits itself by no 
scruples in the accomplishment of its purposes and. 
under the inspiration of Satan, can do a deal of harm. 
This is plainly seen by their boast that " Congress can 
make no law through which the Mormons cannot drive 
a six-mule team." They have no regard whatever for 



24 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

an oath made to the Government an the plea that, in its 
violation, they are only lying to the " Gentile God," and 
not to the Mormon (Adon) God. 

Great things are expected of the new Edmunds- 
Tucker bill that lias become a law, which provides for 
the disfranchisement of women, the dissolution of the 
Corporation of the " Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints," and the test oath as a qualification for 
voting, which provides that no man "who directly or 
indirectly counsels, advises, aids or abets, the practice 
of polygamy " shall be entitled to vote. " This oath the 
Mormons are taking by wholesale, on the plea that, as 
the church organisation is annulled, there is no such 
corporation, and therefore an oath not to aid or abet a 
practice which has been declared illegal as a doctrine 
of a corporation, is entirely consistent and can be broken 
without perjury." 

In order to defeat this Bill they are organising 
Womens' Mission Societies, whose aim is to send women 
throughout the Territory "preaching polygamy, and 
urging the brethren to hold fast to their -covenants. All 
these things are making the law of none effect. Po- 
lygamy is practiced now quite as much as before, in 
spite of the continued prosecutions, and fanaticism is 
rampant. A six month's term in the penitentiary has 
become only a martyr's crown. What the end is to be 
we cannot tell." We recognize it as a " sign of the 
times " calling for the judgments of God if we do not 
cleanse the land of this gross pollution. 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 25 

Closely allied with this in criminal enormity is our 
own lax law of divorce, which serves only as a pretext 
for legalised whoredom, and this the Mormons, with bitter 
irony, throw in our teeth when we talk to them of their 
system of plural marriages, and they certainly have the 
better of the argument as things now stand. In this 
matter we distance all competitors the world over, to 
our shame and disgrace and the evil is constantly in- 
creasing. In every thousand marriages in 1880, there 
were of divorces and separations, in England, two : 
Scotland, three ; France, nine, and in godly, erudite, 
Massachusetts, forty -five. Many other States show a 
far worse record, and the scenes witnessed and the tes- 
timony often heard in divorce courts in connection, are 
of the most shameless kind and frequently too vile to be 
printed in the secular press. I have known church mem- 
bers to swear to "desertion" as the cause of divorce 
when the wife was boarding in the next house to her 
husband's and her board was paid by him. Yet the 
Church gave both of them letters of dismission — under 
protest too— to other churches as "members in good 
and regular standing," because "that was the easiest 
way to get rid of them." For shame! to palm off such 
members on other denominations for such a reason. 
Thank God, a truer conviction is taking possession of 
the Church and she is uttering her voice against the 
unholy practice and, we trust, will shortly clear her 
skirts of such foul stains. It is entered here as a " sign 
of the times," that Satan is moving his cohorts all along 



26 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



the line for the final struggle, knowing that he has but 
a short time and is now come to the " last ditch. 1 ' 

The general desecration of the Sabbath and its debase- 
ment to purposes of gain or pleasure by a vast majority 
of the people, is another of the lines on which the spirit 
of all evil is working for the ruin of the people and the 
Government. It proved to be the rock on which Israel 
of old struck and went down, and nothing but the divine 
interposition can save us, unless we restore the Sabbath 
to its pristine simplicity as a day wherein thou shalt 

"Turn away thy foot from doing THY pleasure on my 
holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the 
Lord honorable ; and shalt honor it, not doing THINE OWN 
ways, nor finding THINE OWN pleasure, nor speaking 
THINE OWN words; then will I make thee to ride on the 
high places of the earth " etc. (Isa. 58-13). 

It is a shameful fact that Christians are largely 
responsible for the introduction of the Sunday trains — 
as we learn by the report of the Massachusetts Sabbath 
Committee — to aid them in reaching their accustomed 
places of worship in the city from their suburban homes. 

Still further to desecrate the day, Satan prompts the 
people to ask for their mail on this sacred day and thus 
the Government, to accommodate the people, becomes 
the greatest desecrator of all by compelling many 
thousands of clerks to be at the office to distribute the 
mail. Many professed Christians make no scruple of 
getting their mail and reading it all. Thus they bring 
secular affairs into the very sanctuary of God and work 
out their plans for gain on the morrow. We are fast 



SIGNS OE THE TIMES. 27 



coining into the Sabbath of Paris, and were it not for 
the promises of God, we should believe into an inheri- 
tance of Paris' doom. Pierre Joseph Proudhon. the 
communist and atheist, says of the French Sunday: 
" Sunday in the towns is a day of rest without motive or 
end ; an occasion of display for the women and children: 
of consumption in the restaurants and wine shops : of 
degrading idleness ; of surfeit and debauchery. The 
workmen make merry, the grisettes dance, the soldier 
tipples, the tradesman alone is busy." " Thus by a dis- 
order which cries to Heaven for vengeance, the holy 
day is the day of the week most profaned." This 
closing reflection is by Abbe Gauine. a priest of the 
Catholic Church, on this horrible state of affairs. Cali- 
fornia can almost rival it. 

With this greed of gain and pleasure and this whole- 
sale trampling on the laws of a Holy and Just God. is it 
any wonder that the foundations of principle are under- 
mined? the outcroppings of which are seen in defal- 
cations, and swindling schemes, and robbing of the 
public treasury, and embezzlements, and fleecing of the 
widow and fatherless, and perversion of justice, and 
blood. Surely Ave are in the midst of the " last days," 
or L ' the consummation of the age,' 1 when Christ said the 
tares shall be gathered out from the wheat and cast into 
the fire. Nothing can save the land from this doom but 
a complete reformation like that of Nineveh. 

Without stopping to dwell upon " Spiritualism " as 
one of the wi signs " that Satan is moving all his forces 



28 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



to meet the corresponding developments of Christian 
activity through the Divine Spirit, we desire to call 
attention to the last, most subtle and effective delusion 
of the Devil in what is called Christian (?) Science or 
Mind Cure, As always, heretofore, since the days of 
Jannes and Jambres in Moses' time, Satan imitates the 
real thing and produces like results with only this slight 
( ?) difference in the last " craze: " " All power is given 
unto me," says Christ, " in heaven and in earth." But 
Satan says '" Mind rules matter, mind controls all things 
and, hence, one finds in one's own self all the power 
necessary to heal all bodily ailments, and to " say to this 
mountain be thou removed and cast into the sea and it 
shall be done." O, my dear Saviour, they have no place 
for you now in the world, to soothe its sorrows and lift 
its burdens, and for whose advent we thought the 
'•whole creation was groaning and travailing in pain 
together until now!" No invitation will be extended to 
you now by these to come and take your inherited and 
richly- won throne! They have found a panacea for all 
ills and all burdens — SELF. 

With all the warnings which have been given to you, 
dear brother, sister, how is it that you cannot discern 
the " signs of the times," and see that " these are the 
spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth to the 
kings of the whole inhabited earth," to gather them to 
the battle of that great day when your "refuge of 
lies will be swept away, and your agreement ivith hell 
shall be disannulled." I beseech you, "touch not the 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 29 



unclean thing lest you be defiled." and your names 
blotted out from " the book of life." 

. Having now set forth the dark back-ground of the 
•• signs of the times," the dark side of the Lw pillar of 
cloud to the Egyptians," let us see if there is any light 
in "the pillar of fire to Israel" to guide us in our 
journeyings toward the promised land, the gift of the 
" God of Heaven." that is to be the " kingdom of His 
dear Son." 

If we have seen surprising activity among the hosts of 
Satan, there is equal, if not greater, activity and exertion 
among the followers of King Jesus. Certainly no age 
since the Apostles' has begun to see such splendid 
efforts " all along the line " as are being made to-day, 
and we want it to be impressed as with a pen of iron 
upon the mind of every man, woman and child that this 
activity began at the very commencement of this century 
nearly ninety years ago. You will see the significance 
we attach to that time, as we proceed, as the pivotal 
point of the ages. 

If the Nihilists and Atheists are seeking to destroy 
the foundations of society, they have compelled the 
Christians also to organise for its preservation, especially 
to preserve our Republican institutions and religious 
privileges as they were bequeathed to us by our fathers, 
with this notable addition: instead of depending for 
good rulers and legislators on the moral and religious 
sentiment of the people — always a variable quantity — as 
did our fathers, the foremost Christians of the country 



30 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



have organised the Moral Reform Association of Phila- 
delphia for the special purpose of effecting such a 
change in the organic law of the land as will recognise 
the word of God to be the true basis of all legislation, 
Grod as the rightful source of all authority to rule, and 
Jesus Christ, His Son, as the rightful heir of the 
kingdom in this and all lands, as saith the prophet 
Isaiah : 

"O IZUm. that bringest good tidings, get thee tip into the 
high mountain ; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift 
u thy voice with strength ; lift it up, be not afraid ; say unto 
the cities of Judah, BEHOLD YOUR <^©I>'! " 

To this end the Association is sending out lecturers in 
every part of the land and instructing the people in 
respect to the claims of God's law and the rights of the 
King. At the same time they are doing valiant service 
in the line of better Sabbath observance, and the utter 
annihilation of the drink traffic. It is gratifying to 
know that the people are giving earnest attention to this 
subject, and heartily endorsing the movement as soon as 
they understand its aims. Of a truth, light is beaming 
upon us from the " pillar," and many of the first minds 
of the country are becoming enlisted in the cause and 
writing for it, though the full significance of the move- 
ment cannot as yet be fully and generally understood. 

Thoughtful men, and women too, are waking up to the 
fact that many and great perils threaten our American 
institutions and Christian civilisation. 1 As a result of 
this widespread conviction, born of the Spirit of God, 

1 See the call of the Evangelical Alliance for 1887. 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 31 

there has never been a time so pregnant with mighty 
issues. The spirit of organisation has taken possession 
of men, especially in the line of all benevolent and 
Christian effort ; for men feel what they cannot as yet 
clearly see, that the great battle of the ages between the 
powers of darkness and those of light is upon us. and 
the issue must be met. Christ is marshalling his forces 
for the mighty struggle, out of which Spiritual Israel 
shall come purified, refined and strengthened, both in 
graces and in numbers. 

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but 
spiritual and mighty through God to the pulling down of 
strongholds." (8 Cor. 10-5). 

" For He is FAITHFUL, and TRIE and in righteousness 
He doth judge and make war : and He is clothed in a vesture 
dipped in blood: and his name is called. 'THE WORD OF 
GOD'; and they -were slain with the sword of Him that sat 
upon the Horse, which sword proceedeth OFT OF HIS 
MOITH." (Rev. 19-11, 12, 31). 

All enemies must, therefore, " in this manner be 
killed. 1 ' This characterises the warfare as a moral one 
and the victory certain. 

Thus we see on every hand such a searching of the 
word of God to know the mind of the Spirit ; such a 
longing and striving after " holiness unto the Lord " and. 
though at present the cloud of promise be no bigger 
than a man's hand, yet it gives promise of better things 
to come, even such an outpouring of the spirit that 
" there shall not be room enough to receive it." Bibles 
are being multiplied by the million and carried even to 
the most out-of-the-way places to the very doors of the 



32 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



people, and personal conversations had with them respect- 
ing their souls' salvation. Millions upon millions of 
children and youth are gathered every Sabbath in this 
and other lands for the study of this word of God in a 
lesson common to the world. 

The ablest men of the age are searching the fountains 
of knowledge for material to prove, to elucidate and 
fortify the word of Grod and make it what it is intended 
to be, a " household word " in every family. 

Some eighty-four Bible societies with their various 
auxiliaries in all lands, are publishing the Bible in 
three hundred and fifty-four different languages and 
dialects, and scattering them broadcast throughout the 
land and the world. Does it look as though "twenty 
years will see the Bible an obsolete book ? " 

Never before have so many prayers been offered up 
daily and hourly, " Thy kingdom come, O Lord, thy 
will be done in earth as in heaven." For a week in 
every year the world is circled with united prayer, as 
Saturn with his rings, while angels and archangels send 
back the glad response, " Peace on earth, good will to 
men." Moreover, there has never been since the 
apostolic days, such answers to prayer as are witnessed 
daily throughout this land ; and the promise seems 
already fulfilled, 

"Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet 
speaking; I will hear." (Isaiah 64-34). 

Before this mighty power of faith and prayer the hoary 
headed faiths and philosophies of the world are tottering 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. SB 



to their foundations. Says a recent writer in his report 
-of the work in India and Ceylon: 1 "The godless are 
more wicked, for education has torn from them the last 
fibre of religious or temple restraint; the thoughtful 
and moral are perplexed or desperate ; they are watching 
in suspense for the next change, or are holding fast to 
that which they have ceased to believe, clinging to the 
last plank of a shipwrecked faith/' What a striking 
reproduction of the social condition of the falling 
Roman, Pagan faith during the first centuries of the 
Christian era. Why, even Satan himself, in his des- 
peration, is instructing his followers to seize this niighty 
weapon of prayer for the support of his tottering 
kingdom; and at a recent convention of " brewmasters " 
at Chicago, the President rose and said : 

" It is the usual thing to open large assemblies and 
conventions with prayer, and it therefore behooves us to 
conform to the established usage. As no member of 
any denomination (?) is present, I take upon myself 
the onerous task, which I think should conform with the 
disposition of this assemblage." 

He then with fervor and solemn unction poured forth 
a prayer commencing thus : . 

"O, God ! .Thou hast not only provided the water for 
our use, but, also, to the end that our bodies may be 
strengthened and our souls rejoiced, thou hast granted 
us other and pleasanter beverages, especially beer/' * * * 

" Brewers, as we are the instruments of the Heavenly 

1 Rev. E. E. Jenkins, in Methodist Times, London. 



34 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



will, let us pray earnestly that the greatness of this gift- 
be not misapplied. To that end let us pray for good 
beer and plenty of it, and let us earnestly resolve from 
this time on to brew no other." 

If this is not offering " strange fire" on the altar, we 
fail to see what is, and the same doom awaits them. 
But let us resume. 

Never before have the fields been so " white to the 
harvest " all over the world — with which every Christian 
should be familiar — and never before have so many 
laborers been sent forth by the Lord of the harvest for 
the ingathering of the fruits unto life eternal. The 
bonds of the Levitical priesthood have been burst 
asunder that we might become a "kingdom of priests 
and an holy nation." (Ex. 19-6). Volumes would fail 
to tell the wonderful story, and a few facts, only, must 
suffice. To say nothing of the large numbers of lay 
Evangelists and "Bible readers" of this country whom 
the Lord has sent in haste into the vineyard, and the 
larger numbers who have gone out from the Holiness 
Associations ; and the ten thousand officers of the ' Sal- 
vation Army ' in this country and in England, all supple- 
menting the churches and reaching out after ' the masses ' 
with redemption's glad story, we come to the missionary 
work of the world which now includes fifty organised 
American societies with an annual income of $4,420,613, 
and fifty European societies with an income of $5,303,237. 
In the employ of these societies there is a total of 2,275 
ordained missionaries, 2,162 women, 2,243 ordained 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



native helpers and 644,584 communicants in churches, 
besides 1,750,000 evangelised, adherents in attendance. 
These totals show a gain over the preceding year of 
$659,350 of income, 25 ordained missionaries, 70 lay 
missionaries, 140 women, 133 ordained natives. 8.637 
native helpers and 26,137 communicants. 

A most remarkable movement has grown out of a 
meeting of two graduates of Princeton College (sons of 
missionaries in India) with Mr. Moody's Northfielcl Con- 
ference, from which they started out to visit the various 
colleges of the land to interest the students, if possible, 
in foreign missionary work, and the result has been, 
thus far, fully two thousand students have pledged 
themselves to the work of evangelising the world. Glory 
be to His dear name ! Add to this the wonderful work 
that has sprung up in the English and Scotch Univer- 
sities in the same direction and under the same divine 
impulse, and it is not difficult to see the " signs of the 
times.*' Many of these English students go out at their 
own expense, having consecrated themselves and their 
all to * Him who redeemed them from the curse of the 
law.' Please do not forget that the first organised 
Missionary Association was founded in 1792 — "The 
Baptist Society for the Propagating of the Gospel in 
Heathendom "—and in 1795, tw The London Missionary 
Society," when the dawn of missionary enterprise was 
concurrent with a blessed revival of piety and effort. 

No longer are we required to go three times a year to 
Jerusalem to worship and offer sacrifices, for Christ is 



36 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

become our Passover for all mankind and for all time., 
in any place or temple where fervent souls meet for His 
worship. In a recent year, prior to 1876, there were 
built and dedicated three Christian churches for every 
working - day in the year, one for evet'y three hours- 
nearly, and every year brings new demands and new 
supplies. For four years preceding 1880 the average 
was more than ten each day. 

The temple with its rent vail has passed away never 
more to rear its golden towers to the sky, for Christ has 
taught that the human heart, redeemed and cleansed of 
all impurity, is the only fit dwelling place oh this earth 
of the Holy Spirit — the ' Shekina ' of God. 

"Know ye not that YE are the temple of God and that the 
Spirit of God dwelieth in you ? " (1 Cor. 3-16). 

"And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out 
my spirit upon all flesh ; and your SONS and your 
DAUGHTERS shall prophesy." (Joel «-«8). 

As a fulfillment of this gracious promise we have 
to-day as never before, since the day of Pentecost and 
Apostolic times, such wonderful manifestations of the 
Spirit's presence in all parts of the land and of the 
world. News is borne on every breeze of a mighty 
awakening of "men's minds for the reception of the truth. 
Never, never before, have gentle women been led forth 
as by the mighty hand of God " to the help of the Lord, 
the help of the Lord against the mighty." It fires the 
soul with a divine, an all-consuming enthusiasm, as we 
read and see what work these godly, Christian women 
are doing for the cleansing of the land of its foul cor- 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 37 

ruptions. " This is the Lord's doing : it is marvellous in 
our eyes." (Ps. 118-23). 

But not alone to the "advance guard' of Christ's 
followers is committed this regeneration into a new life. 
Men of all shades of belief,, as if moved by an un- 
perceived. impelling power, are pouring out their money 
in lavish streams to supply the ' sinews of war * for this 
simultaneous advance. The history of the world — 
excepting, possibly, the age of the Crusades, and that 
was but a blind, religious zeal for a sentiment — shows 
nothing of the kind in the past for the lifting up of 
humanity and for the relief of distress irrespective of 
age, religion or race. No sooner does the cry of distress 
and misfortune come than relief is furnished till they 
cry " stop ! " Freighted ships are sent to distant lands 
and an alien race, to feed the hungry and clothe the 
naked. Sorrow and suffering make the whole world 
akin by the mighty power, of that love which knew no 
north, no south, no east, no west, heaven-born and God- 
like. But not a tithe is now given of what will yet be 
consecrated to the Lord for the enlargement of His 
kingdom. But the good work does not stop here. 

Never before has human thought been so stimulated 
to multiply the rewards of human industry, and while it 
has multiplied, eleven times over, the combined pro- 
ducing power of the world, the wages of labor have 
been increased fifteen times. Nature's laboratory and 
laws are being ransacked as never before to add to man's 
comfort and supply his needs. As the forests disappear 



38 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

under accrumulated demands, vast fields of coal stored 
for countless ages are opened up and brought to our 
very doors. Steam, light, electricity and even the air 
itself are made to bend beneath the controlling hand of 
man, and minister to his will, while each new develop- 
ment, each new leaf turned in Nature's book, only opens 
up still greater wonders as among the possibilities of 
Nature's ponderous volume. 

What mean these mighty upheavals of spiritual, 
moral and intellectual forces if they be not premonitory 
signs of the consummation of the age? They are the 
pangs of a new birth that shall introduce a reign of 
righteousness, joy and peace for ever. The increase, by 
more than one hundred per cent, in modern times of 
" earthquakes in divers places" gives evidence of the 
truth of the record, and that nature herself sympathises 
with man in his mighty efforts to roll off the incubus of 
the ages and stand forth a free man. 



"The whole creation groaneth and travail eth in pain 
together until now, waiting for the adoption, to- wit, the 
redemption of our hody" (from the power of sin) and "the 
manifestation of the Sons of Ood." (Rom. 8-1*3, 33, 19). 



" Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord : 

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are 

stored ; 
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword, 
His truth is marching on ! 

" I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel ; 
As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal. 
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the Serpent with his heel, 
Since God is marching on ! 



THE TWOFOLD PLAN. 39 



* • He has sounded forth the ' trumpet ' that shall never call retreat 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat : 
O, be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet, 
Our God is marching on ! 

6S In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, 
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me : 
As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free, 
While God is marching on ! " 



CHAPTER II 



The Father and the Son. — Twofold Character of 
the Plan. 

" And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head and 
thou shalt bruise his heel." (Gen. 3-15). 

" Which is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour, 
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and brought life and 
immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Tim. 1-10). 

"And the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet 
shortly." (Rom. 16-20). 

It is a matter of great regret that there exists such a 
widespread indifference in the Christian church to 
prophecies respecting what is commonly called the 
• second advent.' When spoken to on the subject the 
reply usually is, " We know nothing about the subject 



40 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

and have no particular desire to know about it, it is all 
so obscure. If we are prepared for death we shall be 
prepared for his coming." Just as though Christ did 
not know what he was talking about when he warned us 
over and over again to watch for his coming, not for 
death. 

The scriptures nowhere speak of preparation for such 
an event as being a sufficient preparation for his coming,, 
but they teach that a joyful expectancy of and preparation 
for his coming provides for all contingencies, since the 
greater always includes the less. By so much as the 
marriage feast with all its joyous festivities surpasses 
the mere preparation for it, does a full and clear con- 
ception of Christ's coming and " the glory that should 
follow,' 1 as well as of our present relations to it, surpass 
any personal preparation for death, or any vague expec- 
tation of a distant coming. 

After all of Christ's warnings in ten or twelve different 
places, and the warnings of the Apostles to the same 
effect, do you .suppose God has left us without any 
definite knowledge of that stupendous and all absorbing 
event, or that He has left us entirely in the dark 
respecting that which was the delightful theme of con- 
templation and utterance by prophets, priests and kings, 
as well as of the Apostles of the Lord Jesus ? May it 
not be rather that we have failed to see the glorious 
vision because of our lack of interest in and neglect of 
the prophecies respecting it ? 

Christ especially warns us against falling into a 



THE TWOFOLD PLAN. 41 

'condition of indifference in regard to this subject, lest 
w^e begin to say within ourselves "My Lord delay eth his 
coming " and thus grow careless, worldly, unscrupulous 
and selfish. Inasmuch, then, as the appearing of our 
Lord is set forth in the scriptures as the great hope of 
the ages. " What manner of persons ought we to be in all 
holy conversation and godliness : " * * * " and so m uch 
the more as ye see the day approaching. " 

If Satan presents the material things of the world as 
his strongest strategic point from which to assail us and 
draw us from our allegiance to Christ, we are presented 
in the scriptures with the material interests and glory of 
Christ's earthly kingdom sufficiently to interest and 
satisfy all hearts and keep them true to him. 

I know of no more absorbing study than to get first a 
plan of the campaign for the recovery of the world, and 
then to watch the unfolding of the plan — especially since 
"the mystery of God is finished" — and see by what 
••stately steppings" God is moving on to that point when 
He will give the kingdom to His dear Son, to the utter 
and complete discomfiture of Satan and all his hosts. 
It fills my soul with unutterable joy as I see that day 
hastening, and watch the events that are unmistakably 
pointing to it. 

But you probably will reply to me, " There have been 
so many and such conflicting theories among the wisest 
and best of men respecting the coming of Christ, that I 
think it best for me to walk in -the good old way' and 
let them all alone ; by so doing I cannot go far astray."' 



4:2 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



Let me ask you, did the coming of many pretenders 
before the time of Christ absolve a single soul from his 
duty to compare with the sacred record the claims of all 
who appeared ? That would have settled the question 
at once, provided they were well acquainted with the 
record. If the many pious Jews of Christ's time had 
been familiar with the prophetic record, do you think 
the learned Doctors of the Law could have settled the 
question of his coming so easily when they uttered their 
wonderful (?) argument, "Look and see, for out of 
Gallilee ariseth no prophet " ? 

We say then, be familiar with the record ; be patient ; 
compare scripture with scripture, and by the teachings 
of the Spirit you will find untold comfort in the thought 
of His coming, and that you may greatly help in pre- 
paring the way for him. 

But there are many on the other hand who are 
intensely interested in this subject but who, from looking 
at one class of scripture only, or one phase of the 
subject only, have been led to believe in a coming so at 
variance with the plan of God that my heart is pained 
to witness the unhappy results that have followed such 
wild and exciting theories, though apparently supported 
by a very considerable array of scripture. Paul was, 
obliged to warn the Thessalonians not to be deceived 
into a belief of the near coming of Christ in person in 
his day, and we need in our day to be warned that all 
theories which make the coming of Christ a personal 
one at this time or in the near future with all its 



TFE TWOFOLD PLAN. 43 

attendant phenomena, are contrary to scripture, antago- 
nistic to the plan of God, and derogatory to the mission 
of Christ. 

If there was any event of ancient times likely to be 
foretold with any certainty as to the time of its occur- 
rence, that event would have been the birth of the 
promised Messiah. That event was foretold in precise and 
clear terms thus : 

"From the going- forth of the commandment to Imild and 
restore Jerusalem, nnto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven 
weeks, and three score and two weeks. And after three score 
and two weeks shall Messiah lie cut oft"." (Dan. 9-25. 26). 

One would think this prophecy to be so definite that 
no one could mistake the time, yet they did, although 
there was a general expectancy of the near approach of 
the time for his coming. Thirty years elapsed after 
the expiration of the date given, before it was announced 
that Messiah had come, whereas a belief had grown up 
that he would come suddenly at the appointed time, in 
full grown manhood from some mysterious source, like 
Minerva from the head of Jove full armored and 
complete. They had become accustomed to look at 
one phase only of his character as a Prince and, not 
taking the trouble to become familiar with all the 
scripture concerning him they completely failed, with 
few notable exceptions, of perceiving his presence 
among them. 

Again, the time though apparently so definite was 
yet very uncertain, for there were four separate edicts to 
build Jerusalem covering a period of nearly one 



4A THE COMING KINGDOM. 



liunclred years. God never intended the prophecy to 
give them any more than a general expectancy of the 
event, until after men had compared His character and 
claims with the divine record, and if the two tallied 
exactly they could then reckon back four hundred and 
ninety years and find corroborative evidence to a day 
of the truthfulness of Christ's assumptions. That is 
God's way of telling the grand events of His Govern- 
ment for the purpose at once of keeping them from the 
knowledge of the world, and to keep the interest of His 
own people alive to the scripture record, and to the 
"signs of the times" until the events foretold are com- 
plete, or so near complete (as at the present time) that 
wicked men cannot forestall or overturn them. Shall 
we repeat the blunder of the Jews? Then we must 
examine carefully the interpretations given in this book 
and compare them with the scripture record, for we are 
in a worse dilemma than were ever the Jews respecting 
the time of Christ's coming, as well as the character of 
it and the results to flow from ignoring it. 

All the times which have been heretofore set for the 
coming of Christ and the setting up of the kingdom 
have been based upon the various historical dates given 
for the commencement of the Papacy and the corre- 
sponding continuance of the twelve hundred and sixty 
years of John's and Daniel's visions. In this case there 
are two hundred and twenty-two years between said 
first and last dates. The same difficulty is repeated in 
this prediction as in that of the decrees to build and 



THE TWOFOLD PLAN. 45 



restore Jerusalem. Who shall determine which is the 
right elate from which to commence the duration of the 
papacy ? That point will be determined in a scriptural 
manner in a future chapter. At present it is introduced 
to show how absurd it is, after the example of former 
times to undertake to fathom " the times and the sea- 
sons " from that end of the line. It is absolutely im- 
possible. 

Of course each " expounder of the mysteries " can suit 
either of the supposable dates to any preconceived theory 
he may happen to have, and since Christ has not come 
yet, the Advent has been advanced from the time of Wm. 
Miller, about forty years ago, all along till the present. 
Many are still expecting his coming in the dim future, 
for those historical dates will not end until 2016 A. D. 

Thoroughly disgusted with these attempts to limit the 
Almighty by such uncertain dates, the more thoughtful 
expounders of the Word have now settled down to the 
conviction that Christ's coming is now at any time immi- 
nent and are holding themselves ready for it. But here 
again they are divided, on account of certain irrecon- 
cilable passages of scripture, into two classes called re- 
spectively pre-millennial and post-millennial theorists. 
Within these two bodies of expectants there are all 
shades of belief and almost no belief at all. It is our 
hope to reconcile all these divergencies on a scriptural 
and common sense basis. 

We might go on and show in quite a number of particu- 
lars wherein we are repeating the veiw mistakes of the 



46 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Jews in Christ's time, by which they deluded themselves 
and their descendents to this day into the belief that 
his first advent is still in the dim future. But we think 
sufficient has been said respecting the time, and in allu- 
sions to some of their fallacies to insure a fair and un- 
biased hearing to the close of this examination of what 
the Bible really says respecting Christ's second coming 
and kindred events. 

And now, dear reader, if you are prepared to follow us 
with an unbiased mind, let us begin at the very be- 
ginning of God's word and see if we can find out His 
plan in the government of this world, for it is all impor- 
tant for a proper consideration of this whole subject that 
we commence right. It is on this starting point that the 
whole arrangement of scripture hangs and around which 
it revolves. If we can settle definitely the object and 
outlines of the campaign for the control of the world we 
shall readily perceive how naturally the details find their 
appointed place under the guiding hand of God for a 
sure and decisive victory. 

Hardly was man comfortably located in the garden of 
Eden with his new help-mate, before we find that both 
had disobeyed the divine command at the instigation of 
Satan in the person of the serpent. The eyes of the 
guilty pair had indeed been opened to behold good and 
evil, but the dangerous experience had cost them their 
innocence and purity, for tliey " hid themselves from 
the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the 
garden" (Gen. 3-8). Separation and estrangement had 



THE TWOFOLD PLAN. 47 



come, where before were loving obedience and companion- 
ship ; shame and confusion had taken the place of manly 
dignity and womanly modesty. 

In this strange* position into which this happy family 
had come in its social relations with their Creator, there 
is but one course to pursue. Justice must take its course. 
The law had been fairly proclaimed and had been de- 
liberately disobeyed. The consequences involved in the 
penalty were distinctly understood so far as they needed 
to be, but the word of the Serpent had been trusted 
rather than that of the Creator. The Garden is no 
more a happy home to them under the protection and 
companionship of the Father, but the wide world be- 
comes their home and they must make their own roof 
and their own bed as best they can and where they may 
choose. They can no more eat at a free table with the 
Father's blessing, without a care or thought of trouble, 
but must provide for themselves out of ground "cursed 
for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days 
of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to 
thee, and thou shall eat the herb of the field" until they 
and their seed after them shall have learned by bitter 
experience the horrible nature of the service into which 
they have deliberately entered and shall re-enter the 
service of their Benefactor whose allegiance they have 
so shamefully abandoned. "Let the decree be entered." 

Everyone understands that the Civil Judge has no 
choice in the matter of pardons. His only duty being to 
see that the law is vindicated and the proper penalty 



48 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

imposed. So the Immaculate Judge of all the earth, 
being the executor of his own laws, must of necessity- 
make the law honorable and magnify it, by seeing to it 
that no sinner escapes the penalty. Any other course 
would destroy his government. He can only proclaim 
the law, "Obey and live, disobey and die." The rewards 
of a life of obedience can be proclaimed as an incentive, 
and the terrors of the penalties of broken law can be 
sounded out as a preventive. But, alas, it is found that 
the offspring of the guilty pair have partaken of the 
taint and follow in the steps of tliB parents. 

Only two courses are left open to God, either to pass 
sentence of death upon every human being, or some one 
innocent of any crime must voluntarily offer himself to 
suffer for the guilty. But where can the man be found 
without sin and willing to die ? Nowhere. In this emer- 
gency God himself in the person of his Son "in his 
great love wherewith Jie loved us," declared " I will give 
my life for guilty man and, by the power of infinite love, 
will draw him from the service of Satan to myself." 
Thus Justice will be satisfied and the law will be magni- 
fied and made honorable. 

It is related of a Greek magistrate that his only soil was 
once brought before him charged with a crime, the penal- 
ty for which was the loss of both eyes. He was tried, con- 
victed and sentenced. The multitude waited in anxious 
suspense to see if the judge would permit the sentence 
to be executed upon his own son. His fatherly heart 
yearned to save his son, but as judge the vindication of 



THE TWOFOLD PLAN. 49 

the law was of more value than many sons. To magnify 
the law and make it honorable he consented to lose one 
of his own eyes for that of his son, and thus preserve 
one for himself and one for his guilty boy. 

But man has become obstinate and self-willed by his 
disobedience and will not yield to even a greater evidence 
of the Father's love until he has learned that the way 
and service of Satan is a very hard one. Thus he will 
obtain an impelling motive as well as a drawing one to 
return to his former obedience and allegiance to God, 
More than this, for he will try every scheme that the in- 
genuity of Satan can suggest to him to remedy the effects 
of his disobedience until, sick of sin and sick of his own 
efforts to redeem himself, he at last yields himself a 
willing and cheerful subject of his Benefactor and King. 

To give ample time for these vain efforts and, at the 
same time, to give opportunity to any who might wish 
to return to his allegiance on the strength of a proclama- 
tion of the proposed sacrifice on the part of God, there 
was instituted the law of blood sacrifices pointing to the 
one great sacrifice which would be made " in the fullness 
of time," under the conditions of the promise given at 
the beginning, " The seed of the woman shall bruise the 
serpent's head." Here then we have the origin and rea- 
son of the ceremonial law, which was the very best that 
Divine Justice could devise under the circumstances — 
a system of rewards and punishments based upon a per- 
fect sacrifice made, virtually, "from the foundation of 
the world." 



50 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

But this- law proved entirely inadequate to man's 
needs, because punishment is shown to be impossible as 
a reformatory measure, and rewards are not a sufficient 
inducement, to any great extent, to lead men away from 
sin. To arrive at all these conclusions has taken long 
ages of time, but the lessons are for all time and need 
never to be repeated. It has become evident, moreover, 
that the full power of the divine-human sacrifice, and 
another law than that of rewards and punishments and a 
slain lamb, must be tried if the allegiance of the world 
is ever to be regained to God ; and to that we now 
turn. 

We have seen how utterly impossible it was for God, 
in his character as lawgiver and judge, to regain the lost 
allegiance or obedience of man— for that is really the 
prime object of all His efforts — out of which come as a 
result man's happiness and salvation, since obedience 
always pi'cc'des salvation. Thence came the necessity 
for a change in the mode of operations, and for another 
person than the Lawgiver to effect a reconciliation be- 
tween man and his maker. Thus we learn the reason 
that henceforth " all judgment is committed to the Son," 
and He shall decide when judgment shall be executed 
upon the wicked, when the barren fig-tree shall be cut 
down, and whei the law shall take its course that "every 
man may die for his own iniquity." 

This, then, is the " Great Commission " of the Son — 
to regain the love and allegiance of the world, which 
God the lawgiver had lost, and present it to the Father, 



THE TWOFOLD PLAN. 51 

blood-waslied and redeemed to an eternal sonship. 1 
Surely he has undertaken a mighty task, but Love is all- 
powerful and will come off victorious. Love will cer- 
tainly answer to love, where all the power of punishment 
would prove unavailing. To regain this love Christ 
comes to earth in human form and is obedient in all 
things ; " tempted in all points like as we are yet with- 
out sin ; " endears the people to himself by acts of love ; 
suffers the jeers and insults of the rabble at the instiga- 
tion of those whose hypocrisy he had condemned ; 
voluntarily offers his life to prove his love for man and 
prays, in cruel agony, " Father forgive them for they 
know not what they do." 

The great lesson is taught that love can only be gained 
by love, and we are enabled to understand what he 
means when he says, " And I, if I be lifted up, will dratr 
all men unto me." No force, no compulsion, no terrors 
of the law even, except as a horrible nightmare of the 
past, will be used to accomplish his purpose. Every- 
thing, from a single soul to a kingdom of people, must 
come under this universal rule of willing, cheerful, lov- 
ing obedience as a pre-requisite of citizenship in the new 
kingdom. Here lies the distinguishing characteristic of 
Christ's kingdom as separate and distinctive from the 
government of the world under the Lawgiver. This 
distinction must constantly be borne in mind. Each 
is working on different lines and by different modes of 
action to accomplish a common object. The prophecy 

1 1 Cor. 15-28. 



52 ' THE COMING KINGDOM. 

of this crops out emphatically in Daniel's vision, and 
more or less distinct in other parts. A failure to observe 
this distinction lies at the root of half the trouble in in- 
terpretation. 

Christ says, "my kingdom is not of this world." It is 
not fashioned nor built up after the manner of the king- 
doms of this world by usurpation and the sword and 
bloodshed, nor governed by their principles of action. 
It is not built up by force of arms in the acquisition of 
territory, the inhabitants being willing or unwilling. But 
in the government of the world, and in the shaping and 
creating of kingdoms, God controls and directs all these 
means as is his inalienable right. Hence we find Him 
saying to the Son, 

"Sit thou at my right hand until I MAKE thine enemies 
thy footstool. (Ps. HO-1). I will overturn, overturn, overturn, 
and it shall he no more, until He come whose right it is ; and 
I WIUL OIVE IT TO HIM." (Esse. 31-37). "Thy people 
SHAIil* he willing in the day of thy power." " The Lord at thy 
right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.'* 
IPs. HO- 3, 5). 

These and many other passages show that God con- 
trols all moral and material forces for the accomplish- 
ment of his purposes, as Christ controls and directs all 
spiritual agencies for the accomplishment of his. By 
these means God is making even " the wrath of man to 
praise him " and working for the establishment of the 
"throne of the house of David," while Christ is working 
in the domain of individual human souls to bring them 
into loving relationship with himself. Both are opera- 
ting for the self-same ultimate object — though by dif- 



THE TWOFOLD PLAN. 53 

ferent routes and lines of action — the loving allegiance 
of mankind. 

But this work of love on the part of Christ takes time, 
and cannot in anywise be forced. " For he must reign 
till He hath put all enemies under his feet. The last 
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath 
put all things under his feet." (1 Cor. 15-25, 26, 27), 
and in his own person has given an earnest of what he 
purposes to do for all his disciples, if we will only obey 
orders and give him time. 

But how is death to be destroyed ? Is it to be by one 
grand holocaust of death and destruction to saint and 
sinner r It is only begging the question to say the saints 
will not die but will be quickened. They are taken from 
the present sphere of action by the use of Omnipotent 
power in the burning of the world and placed beyond 
the influence of Satan and death, and that virtually leaves 
Satan in possession of the field before the work of salva- 
tion is hardly begun. No ! no ! A thousand times, no ! 
Such is not God's plan, and no such purpose can be 
found in the Bible except by distortion and wretched 
misapplication of scripture truth. 

The victory, to be worthy of Christ and to show the 
power of divine love and an indwelling Spirit, must be 
a moral and spiritual victory, and to this all scripture 
agrees. Hosea, when speaking only of the resurrection 
of Israel as distinguished from Judah, from their graves 
among the nations, uses this emphatic language, " I will 
ransom them from the grave ; I will redeem them from 



54 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

death : O Death, I will be thy plagues ; O grave, I will 
be thy destruction ; repentance shall be hid from mine 
eyes." (Chap, 12-14). The vision of Ezekiel (chap. 
37) concerning the "dry bones" is kindred to that of 
Hosea. But Isaiah is more particular and emphasises 
the character of the victory as pertaining to individual 
man — to spiritual Israel. 

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the iLord God 
shall wipe away tears from off all faces ; and the rebuke of his 
people shall he take away from off all the earth. fChap 855 -8). 
"And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people; and 
the voice of crying shall no more he heard in her, nor the voice 
of weeping:." (Chap. 65-19). 

Paul says, " The sting of death is sin" (1 Cor. 15-56) ; 
now, if the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, 
where is the sting of death ? and if the power of death 
is destroyed through the resurrection of Christ (Kom. 
6-9), is not our victory complete ? 

Death may now say as did Julian the apostate, " O 
Gallilean, thou hast conquered ! " for death is counted 
an enemy, with all the rest of hell's forces, and must be 
conquered in the same manner as they. " For this is 
the victory that overcometh the world, i. e., the flesh, the 
devil, and the grave, "even your faith." "And the God 
of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." 
(Rom. 16-20). Anything less than this is unworthy of 
Christ and shows weakness somewhere, and anything 
more than this argues defeat, which cannot for a moment 
be admitted. If the Father at this stage of the conflict 
must needs exercise omnipotent power for the destruction 



THE TWOFOLD PLAN. 55 

of the world, or even for a radical change from present 
conditions, and the withdrawal of death's victims by 
quickening or otherwise into the celestial state, it argues 
inability to overcome these enemies by the operation of 
forces now in the field. Hence we conclude that the 
victory, to be worthy of the wisdom and power of God 
in Christ, must be worked out on the present plane of 
conditions, since it was on that plane that the battle was 
lost in the beginning. Nothing short of this will fill the 
measure of the divine plan as clearly revealed in the 
scriptures. It took four thousand years to carry man to 
the bottom of the hill of moral and physical degeneracy 
(and it is always much easier to go down hill than up). 
Shall we not allow an equal time at least for man to rise 
to the best possibilities of his nature before we cut him 
off from this sphere of action ? Let us " give the man a 
chance ! " Do not be so eager, my dear " advent " brother, 
to bring down fire from heaven on poor sinners, lest we 
hear the Master saying to us, "ye know not what manner 
of spirit ye are of." "For I came not to judge the 
world, but to save the world." 

There is one more consideration which ought to have 
great weight with us in determining the character and 
duration of Christ's kingdom on the earth, and it is this : 
when Christ was on the earth he said to his disciples, 
" Nevertheless I tell you the truth : it is expedient for 
}^ou that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter 
icill not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him 
unto you." (Jno. 16-7). The logic of this statement 



56 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

must certainly be that the personal coming of Christ 
will end the work of redemption, whether we suppose 
him to come before or after the millennium. This truth 
is self-evident and needs no argument. 

If Christ's kingdom on earth is both a spiritual and 
(through his saints) a temporal one, by a giving to him 
of the " kingdom which the God of heaven " sets up, 
composed largely of his own followers, how clear and 
beautiful is the prospect for the fulfillment of all the 
glorious promises of God's word which otherwise are 
dark and inexplicable. 

We have need to modify somewhat our modern ideas 
of what the scriptures term "The kingdom of heaven," 
" The kingdom of God," as used by Christ and his dis- 
ciples. In the one hundred and thirty-five places in 
which these phrases occur, in no instance do they refer 
primarily to Heaven the abode of the saints, but rather 
to that condition of the soul in its relations with God 
which fits it to be the recipient of all that comes to us 
as a gift of God. through Christ of pardon, pUrity, love, 
and joy in the Holy Spirit. This condition of our 
spiritual nature gives us the victory over our surround- 
ings and lifts us into a new atmosphere and kingdom. If 
this is accomplished here in the flesh we may have a 
blessed assurance that we are fitted for companionship 
with the saints and all holy beings in Heaven, for which 
other terms are used in the Gospels when speaking of or 
referring to it. 

The next thought in connection with this phraseology 



THE TWOFOLD PLAN. 57 

is that it contains not only the idea of the King ruling in 
us and reigning over us, but of a realm in which to 
reign ; over which Christ shall have equally rightful 
sway through the cheerful obedience of the subjects of 
the realm, and into which shall be gathered all the 
richest material gifts of God's marvellous bounty for an 
endless reign of righteousness under the Son of David, 
Prince of God. These two ideas of inward joy and 
physical blessings permeate the whole body of Old Tes- 
tament scriptures as tine gold permeates rich quartz 
rock, Christ gave practical expression to these views 
by releasing bound souls, healing the sick, feeding the 
multitudes and stilling the tempest. Thus by his life 
here he proved himself to be the very embodiment of all 
there is to be obtained by the establishment of the 
"kingdom of heaven" on earth. By an indwelling pres- 
ence through the reception of His spirit we are enabled 
to perceive the " things of the kingdom " which to 
others are withheld by grossness of life,' and unwillingness 
to yield to the demands of the Spirit. 

"Audit shall come to pass in that day tliat the light shall 
not be clear, nor dark: but it shall be one day which shall be 
known to the Lord, not day, nor night; but it shall come to 
pass that at EYEXIXC; time it shall be IlftHT. (Zee. 14-6. 7) 
" For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the "word of the 
Lord from Jerusalem." (Isa. 2-3: llicah 4-1, 2). 

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the 
light of it : and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and 
honor into it." (Rev. ,21-34.) 

From these passages it appears evident that the reign 
of Christ on earth is to be one of constantly increasing 



58 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

light and beauty from its inception to its close in the 
glorious evening of time. No clouds nor darkness in the 
spiritual horizon of that day when Christ shall have en- 
abled us to rise victorious over all enemies, when tears 
shall be wiped away from all faces, and death shall have 
lost all his terrors. The ages of the millennium will 
give ample time to prove the wonderful superiority of 
Christ's kingdom over every other form of government 
the world has ever seen. " The Sun of Eighteousness 
shall arise with healing in his wings, and the leaves of 
the tree shall be for the healing of the nations. " Happy 
is that people that is in such a case : yea, happy is that 
people whose God is the Lord." 

" Hark ! hark, my sOul ; Angelic songs are swelling 
O'er earth's green fields, and ocean's wave-beat shore : 
How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling 
Of that new life when sin shall be no more. 

Onward we go, for still we hear them singing, 
' Gome, weary souls, for Jesus bids you come ;' 
And through the dark, its echoes sweetly ringing, 
' The music of the Gospel leads us home.' 

Far, far away, like bells at evening pealing, 
The voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea, 
And laden souls by thousands meekly stealing, 
Kind Shepherd, turn their weary steps to Thee." 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 59 



CHAPTER III. 

ISRAEL AND JUDAH, SUBSIDIARY AGENTS IN THE 

PLAN. 

" And I will make of thee — Abraham — a great nation ; and I will 
bless thee and make thy name great : and I will bless them that 
bless thee and curse them that curse thee ; and in thee shall all 
the families of the earth be blessed. And I will make a multitude 
of nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And thy seed 
shall possess the gate of his enemies." (Gen. 12-2, 3 : 17-6 : 22-17). 

" And in thee — Isaac- — and in thy seed shall all the nations of the 
earth be blessed." (Gen. 26-4). 

" Let the people serve thee — Jacob— and nations bow down unto 
thee : be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow 
down unto thee ; cursed be every one that curseth thee, and 
blessed be he that blesseth thee. Be fruitful and multiply ; a na- 
tion and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall 
come out of thy loins." (Gen. 27-29: 35-11). "And ye shall be 
unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation." (Ex. 19-6.) 

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise : thy hand 
shall be in the neck of thine enemies ; thy father's children shall 
bow down before thee. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, 
nor a lawgiver from between his feet until ShiloJi come : and unto 
him shall the gathering of the people be. (Gen. 49-8, 10). 

Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose 
branches run over the wall : the archers have sorely grieved him 
and shot at him, and hated him ; but his bough abode in strength, 
and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the 
mighty God of Jacob ; from thence is the Shepherd the Stone of 
Israel. The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the 
blessings of my progenitors "unto the utmost bounds of the ever- 
lasting hills : they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown 



60 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. (Gen. 
49-22, to 26). 

"Blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of 
heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that croucheth beneath, and 
for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious 
things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the an- 
cient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, 
and for the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof, 
and for the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush : let the 
blessing come upon the head of Joseph , and upon the top of the 
head of him that was separate from his brethren. His glory is- 
like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are the horns of uni- 
corns : with them he shall fush the people together to the ends of 
the earth ; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they 
are the thousands of Manasseh." (Deut. 33-13 to 17). 

In these verses, for the most part from the book 
where things are born, we have a series of most remark- 
able prophecies concerning a people — then yet to come 
— whose influence on the world through al time should 
be most beneficent in saving the race of men from utter 
degradation and ruin and. as Ave learn further on, who 
should eventually reorganise society on a different 
basis for an almost endless reign of peace, prosperity 
and happiness. At the same time they should be through- 
out their career a most marvellous fulfillment of the 
divine purposes foretold at the very commencement to 
Abraham (at a time when he had no offspring and no 
prospect of any), and confirmed with stronger emphasis 
and particularity to Isaac and Jacob and the offspring 
following. On the word of Jehovah it is promised that 
they should become a multitude of nations with many 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 61 

kings, presumably for each of the company of nations ; 
that these nations in conflict with their enemies should 
be victorious ; that his people should be divided into 
iwo lines, each of which should have gathering power, 
one a royal line without break until the coming of SMI oh 
— the Messiah — who should gather the people to himself, 
in whom they should find a "place of rest." 

It was declared that the other line should also have 
gathering power in u the Shepherd — the Stone of Is- 
rael ; ''' that his domain should extend to " the utmost 
bound of the everlasting hills ; "' that his special mission 
should be to push his way. and the people before him, 
with an ever conquering hand to the ends of the earth 
for the accomplishment of the divine purpose : that his 
tree should be "planted in a good soil and by great 
waters." that it might bring forth branches, and that it 
might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine ; " that 
the earth should be exceeding fruitful, and that the ever- 
lasting hills should minister to his wealth in all material 
riches. 

These promises have never been fulfilled (so far as 
the Church knows at this present time), save those per- 
taining to Judah ; and they were never forfeited in the 
curse pronounced upon those who crucified the Messiah, 
for Joseph was not a participant. They have never 
been abrogated, but are in full force to-day. It is our 
purpose to show that they have been and are being ful- 
filled under our very eyes and we know it not. 

We propose therefore to trace in brief these two lines 



62 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

to their historical finality, and bring them together again 
into one, as declared by later prophets should be the 
case, and then place the prophetic record beside them 
to see if we can find sufficient agreement between the 
historical facts and the record, to warrant the conclu- 
sions of this book. 

The ancestors of the Hebrews were nomads of the 
desert with their flocks and herds, wandering up and 
down the country as the seasons advanced and receded 
and the needs of the flocks demanded. This pastoral 
nature was inborn, for so had their fathers done before 
them for generations. When therefore God commenced 
the fulfillment of his promises by permitting Joseph to 
be sold into Egypt, that Jacob and his sons might be 
drawn by the strength of the father's yearning love for 
his long lost boy to leave the home and nomad life of 
his ancestors, it seems to have been His settled purpose 
to keep them there until by long years of apprentice- 
ship, servitude, and suffering, they might become 
weaned of their nomadic life, fused together into one 
homogeneous body, and prepared for national life as 
the peculiar people of God through all coming ages. 

Two hundred and fifteen years of actual life in Egypt 
have the desired effect, and now their cry of distress, on 
account of grinding oppression, brings deliverance by 
reason of the stupendous miracles wrought at the hands 
of Moses, who was ordained of God a lawgiver and 
leader, out of their cruel house of bondage. They are 
let go in haste, laden with presents asked — backsheesh 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 63 

— not "borrowed" of the Egyptians. They are led through 
the sea out into the wilderness of Sinai, "that we may 
sacrifice unto the Lord our God ; and w T e know not 
with what we must serve the Lord until we come 
thither." (Ex. 10-26). In the wilderness they sojourn 
forty years until the effects of the servitude have died 
out and a younger, more courageous and more obedient 
people are prepared to enter into the promised posses- 
sion of Canaan. 

Four hundred years of somewhat disjointed tribal 
life in their new home, with varying fortune in respect 
to their relations with the idolatrous peoples left in the 
land contrary to explicit commands of God, bring us 
down to the reign of David, whose wise and heroic reign 
brings all the tribes into one consolidated, homogeneous, 
nationality. The promise to Judah for the " cli ief prince 
(though the birthright was JesephV "), is confirmed in 
the house of David for an eternal heir and kingship. 
Solomon knits the kingdom more firmly together by the 
building of the Temple and the centralisation of religious 
worship, as well as by the phenomenal prosperity of 
his reign which enriched all classes of his people. 

But the elements of decay were already at work, and 
under Relioboam the son of Solomon a demand for a 
reduction of the heavy taxes, rendered necessary by 
extensive public improvements in all parts of the king- 
dom during his father's reign, was met by such a coarse 
and even brutal refusal as to alienate at once ten tribes 

1 1 Chron. 5-2 and 2 Sam. 7-16. 



64 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

at the head of whom stood Ephriam, with the cry : — 
" What portion have we in David ? and what inheri- 
tance in the son of Jesse ? every man to your tents, O 
Israel !" and now, David, see to thine own house." (1 
Chron. 5-6). 

The separation is complete and final until the days of 
the new dispensation, when Judah and Ephraim shall 
be reunited in a bond of brotherhood never to be broken, 
as said the Prophet Ezekiel : — 

'* I will make tliem one nation in the land upon the moun- 
tains of Israel : and one king shall be king to them all : and 
they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided 
into two kingdoms any more at all ; and David my servant shall 
be king over them anil they all shall have one shepherd : and 
they shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes 
and do them." (Eze. 37-33, 34). 

But though the kingdom is divided, let us not forget 
that Israel is yet through all the ages one and indivisible 
in the eyes of Him who sees all tliingsjfrom the begin- 
ing. This outward disruption is only |for the better 
accomplishment of his purposes on the two lines of 
operations already indicated, by means of this two- 
fold agency. He will surely fulfill the one object 
named at the beginning — the recovery of lost allegiance 
and love. 

The same vital forces that animated the heart and 
head of Jacob when living, with all his tenacity of pur- 
pose and strength of endurance, are still in the body 
politic, directed better than they know, for the fulfill- 
ed the divine promises. The shriveled and limping 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 65 

thigh of Jacob shall find its counterpart in the crippled 
and halting gait of Judah, until temple and ritual ate 
laid aside for a purer worship received from the Son of 
David, the Prince of Peace, exalted to be a Priest for- 
ever after the order of Melchisedeck. 

The other limb shall find in Israel a swift-footed 
though unwitting messenger of the divine purpose, 
strong for a wrestle with opposing forces until it shall 
be lost sight of and buried out of sight, only to come 
forth to become a "multitude of nations ;" that they may 
" push the peoples together to the utmost bound of the 
everlasting hills." 

The history of Judah from the secession of the ten 
tribes, is soon told. Notwithstanding the continued 
warnings of the prophets and the troubled course of her 
idolatrous sister, Israel, the hearts of the people, led 
away by the example of their princes and kings though 
still in the line of David, became so far corrupted by 
the introduction of heathen elements into the worship of 
the temple, that only about three hundred years sufficed 
to fill up the measure of their iniquity, when fire alone 
could wipe out the hideous emblems of idolatory in the 
temple dedicated by Solomon to the worship of the 
living and true God. Temple, palaces, groves and high 
places all fell under the devouring flame, and the great 
body of the people with their princes and rulers were 
carried into a seventy years captivity at Babylon as fore- 
told by the prophets B. C. 606. 

When the years of their captivity were ended God 



66 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

raised up a deliverer in the person of Cyrus at the 
expense of the mighty Assyrian Empire, but so thoroughly 
alienated had the people become by reason of their long 
exile in the midst of an idolatrous people, that only 
about forty-two thousand, besides the servants, were 
found who had thought enough of Zion and her courts, 
the God given Law and the promises, to keep their 
genealogical tables or family records uncorrupted by 
strange marriages, and to desire to return to the home 
and soil of their fathers. 

Henceforward we are to know these returned exiles 
as Jews or Hebrews, recognisable the world over as the 
true and lineal descendants of Abraham. Idolatry has 
been squelched out of them, and they hate it with perfect 
hatred. Those who staid behind either assimilated with 
the Assyrians among whom they dwelt, or they wandered 
into the surrounding countries for purposes of trade and 
commerce, but wherever they went they carried with 
them their peculiar Jewish traits of character, physi- 
ognomy, enterprise, and intellectual endowments. Trav- 
ellers profess to recognise them in the far interior of 
Africa, in Abyssinia, in Malabar and Japan, as well as 
throughout Europe, by such physical and mental traits. 
Luke tells, in Acts 2-9, 10, 11, many of the countries 
from which they came up to Jerusalem to worship in 
his time. 

But now the walls of Jerusalem rise once more around 
the beloved city and inhabitants once more tread her 
busy streets. The temple is rebuilt and the country 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 67 

settles down to peaceful habits for another trial of the 
divine favor. Two hundred years more of national life 
under a varied experience of freedom and dependency, 
prosperity and adversity, bring us to the time of Malachi, 
the last of the prophets through whom the divine Spirit 
will communicate with His people. 

Four hundred years must now intervene before the 
Shekina, long since departed from the Temple, will 
manifest himself in the long promised heir of David's 
throne, the Messiah of God. This long period, while it 
resulted under the Macabees in throwing off the yoke 
of vassalage, left the kingdom to become the prey of 
contending factions and internecine strife, in which the 
line of David was lost in obscurity, only to be revived in 
Him who had been declared to be " as a root out of dry 
ground, without form or comeliness ; despised and re- 
jected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief." (Isa. 53-2, 3). 

Resting against a background of such dark and porten- 
tous aspect as were these years of political and religious 
strife and entire absence of inspired prophet, it might 
naturally be thought an easy matter to detect and 
recognise, by the help of the family records and Daniel's 
definite prediction, the true heir to the throne. But, 
no. Their hearts had become hardened by a dead 
formalism and their eyes were holden that they should 
not see him until the " fullness of the Gentiles" should 
come in. The long promised Messiah has come to them 
but they see him not. The Living Presence is restored 



68 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

to the earthly House but " there is no beauty that they 
should desire him." 1 The Lord, whom ye seek, has 
"suddenly come to his temple, eVen the messenger of the 
covenant, whom ye delight in, 2 but "we hid as it were 
our faces from him ; he was despised, and we esteemed 
him not." 3 

Under the stinging rebukes of Christ for their hypo- 
crisy, the rulers sought a balm for wounded pride and 
ambition by accusing him to Pilate — taking his blood upon 
themselves and their children — and he is ckucified ! 
The vail of the temple is rent from top to bottom, an 
evidence that the special mission of Judah is accom- 
plished. But a few years more and the Temple and 
" City of the Great King " are destroyed, no more to be 
restored as the nucleus of a dead faith, the home of an 
extinct nationality. 

" Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For the king- 
dom shall be taken froni you and given to a nation bringing 
forth the fruits thereof." (Matt. 33-35 to 38 : 21-43 : Jer. 23-39, 
40: 12-17: 17-27: Isa. 65-14, 15). 

Not so, however, with Israel who had no hand in the 
crucifixion and partook not of the curse. Her mission 
lies along an entirely different route, and to her we 
return to follow her, as best we may, through all the 
devious ways of her most wonderful career. It was by 
no means to be expected that Israel with all her pro- 
clivities for idolatry should be a prosperous kingdom. 
Hence, we find her the continual prey of contending 

1 Isa. 53-2. 2 Mai. 3-1. 3 Isa. 53-3. 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 69 

aspirants within, for the throne, and a bone of conten- 
tion for enemies without, on either side of her. Having 
alienated themselves from their brethren of Judah by a 
system of worship based upon and but little removed 
from the temple service at Jeruslaem, the whole policy 
of the ruling powers of Israel was turned towards 
making the separation as wide as possible, that there 
might be no longing desire to return to the old forms 
and place of worship, with its divinely appointed ritual 
and priesthood. Hence their sensuous worship had 
always a tendency inclining more and more to the 
grosser forms of idolatry, and the introduction of the 
numerous gods of other surrounding nations. 

Such a condition of things could not long continue if 
they are to retain those inherited qualifications by 
which they are to push the people to the ends of the 
earth, and be a blessing to the world by being its con- 
querors. To remain is death ; to go out is life. But what 
impulse shall be sufficient to induce them to leave home 
and fatherland, the home of Abraham and Isaac and 
Jacob ? God has answered it as he had said by all 
his servants, the prophets- : — 

"So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assy- 
ria unto this day : and he placed them in Halah. and in Habor 
by the river of G-ozan, and in the cities of the 3Iedes." And 
the King* of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from 
Cuthah. and from Ava. and from Hamath. and from Sephar- 
vaiin, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the 
children of Israel. (2 Kings 17-16. 23, 24). 

Thus the kingdom of Israel continued after the seces- 



70 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

sion only about two hundred and fifty-four years, when 
it is thoroughly wiped out by a complete interchange of 
populations as above stated, 740 to 713 B. C. x 

To all human appearance this is the end of Israel, for 
we hear nothing further of them from Scripture, save an 
allusion in the " General Epistle of James " thus : 
" To the twelve tribes scattered abroad ; greeting." But 
no indication is given as to their location and, seemingly, 
they are buried out of sight (at least the world has 
so considered) for more than twenty centuries. It may 
be well then, for a brief space, to look at the " waymarks " 
which the divine record tells beforehand shall be set up, 
and then we may proceed to enquire if profane history 
gives us any clue to their fulfillment. 

At the very threshold of their captivity God declared 
by the mouth of Hosea : — 

" O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself ; hut in me is thine 
help. I will ransom them from the power of the grave ; I will 
redeem them from death : O death, I will he thy plagues ; O 
grave, I will he thy destruction ; repentance shall he hid from 
mine eyes. Ephraim shall say,— What have I to do any more 
with idols ! I have heard him and ohgerved him : I am like a 
green fir tree ; from me is thine help. Who is wise, and he 
shall understand these things ? prudent, and he shall know 
them ? " (Hosea 13-9, 14 : 14-8, 9). 

The only conclusion that can be drawn from these 
prophecies and others like them is, that God will yet 
bring Israel out of her grave and make her known to 



1 This event was contemporaneous with the .founding of Home 
so long ago in the dim past did the dispersion commence. 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 71 

the world as a monument of his abounding goodness and 
power. 

The promises of superabounding blessings upon 
Ephraim and Manasseh, sons of Joseph, have never 
"been fulfilled in anything that history has revealed to us 
in connection with the Jews. These have never become 
a " multitude of nations," though scattered everywhere. 
They have not increased, according to all accounts, above 
the number credited to them at the time of Christ, while 
it was declared of Joseph that his seed should multiply 
"as the fishes do increase." 1 Hebrews have never in 
any special sense been a blessing to the world, nor have 
they been remarkably blessed themselves. They have 
kept aloof from the people and are hated of all nations 
for a special crime. Only since they came to this 
country have they enjoyed social and political freedom. 
In nothing do they fill the requirements of the prophetic 
record, save in those that immediately concerned them- 
selves. 

If the prophecies concerning Joseph and his sons 
Ephraim and Manasseh were not fulfilled in Palestine 
before the captivity, it is certain they are yet to be ful- 
filled. They have already been fulfilled in part since 
they left their land and are being fulfilled to-day. If 
ths "times of the Gentiles" — the domination of the 
kings of the earth over Israel — are being fulfilled as all 
" signs of the times " indicate, then we must look for 
the realisation of these wonderful promises in some 

1 Mar. Kef. Gen. 48-16. 



72 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

manner and among a people not yet discovered nor dis- 
coverable as Hebrews. Those who are seeking after the 
marvelous and the tragic in the developments of 
prophecy, will never see them wrought out into fact, for 
it is "the glory of God to conceal a thing." All the. 
great moral epochs of God-in- Christ's government have 
been very quiet affairs and not introduced by the blast of a 
trumpet; but those who watch His secret and silent way 
of working, shall see things of wondrous beauty, even 
" The horsemen of Israel and the chariots thereof." 
"Who is wise, and he shall understand these things ? 
prudent, and he shall know them ? " 

The word of God unfolds itself like life, ever opening 
and expanding into new forms, seen only by those who 
are led by the spirit rather than by the letter of the 
word. The promises made to the Patriarchs included 
the Jews of course, but those to the children of Joseph 
extend far beyond them, and while we do not deny that 
Jewish influence has been considerable in the world in 
some respects, especially in the field of finance and 
literature and state craft in modern times, yet these by 
no means fill the requirements of the case in respect of 
the line of Joseph. We feel warranted, therefore, in 
saying that the Jewish Church and nati3iial life filled 
up the full measure of their existence as such when the 
last of the line of David, the promised Messiah, was 
born, who lives forever a perpetual king.' There being- 
no further use for the Temple and the family records, 
they were destroyed with the c'.ty. 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 73 



But the national life of Joseph was promised to con- 
tinue through all time (in one form or other, as will 
appear further on), and become the medium by which 
Judah herself should be gathered a second time, under 
a new covenant and a new name, into a home from which 
there should be no removing (Isa. 11-11 to 14 : Jer. 
31-31 to 34: 2 Sam. 7-10). 

Meantime, great changes must take place in Israel 
before she can enter on her peculiar mission, for the 
tribes have become thoroughly demoralised by reason of 
idolatry. So conspicuous has Ephraim become as the 
leader of these idolatrous defections, that it is declared 
of him "Ephraim is joined to his idols ; let him alone'' 
(Hosea 4-17) ; so prominent indeed that his name stands 
as the representative of the whole house of Israel as 
God declares in his tender appeal by the same prophet ; 
" O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee. * * There 
is idolatry in Ephraim — Israel is defiled" (Chap. 
6-4, 10). 

The result is as predicted : — 

"Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the peo le" (Chap. 
7-8). "Because Ephraim hath made many alters to sin, alters 
shall he unto him to sin (Chap. 8-11). "Israel is swallowed up : 
non shall *they he among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is 
no pleasure ; for they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone 
by himself" (€hap. 8-S. 9). 

'♦'He is like an unclean and broken urn cast into the 
sea as worse than useless. He forgot his Maker, yet 
built temples. In consequence of this attempt to do 
God service by flattering their own vanity, the very 



74 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

people who deemed themselves the peculiar inheritors 
of divine blessings, are now outcasts alike from their 
fatherland and their father's hopes. They shall forget 
all their traditions of Jehovah's covenant with their 
fathers, they are only to know themselves as utterly 
desolate and hopeless, incapable of recovery but through 
a manifestation of grace of which they have no record." 
Hosea continues the sad story of their defection thus : — 
"My God shall cast them away, and they shall be wan- 
derers among the nations " ( Chap. 9-17 ) . Thus, also, the 
prediction of Moses is confirmed, as the result of their 
departure from the counsels of God. " The Lord shall 
scatter thee among all people from one end of the 
earth even unto the other" (Deut. 28-64). "And I 
will punish you yet seven times for your sins" (Lev. 
26-24). 

There were other peculiarities also which should 
result from this gross departure from God and accom- 
pany them in their wanderings until they should be 
fully prepared for their high destiny among and apart 
from the nations. Ephraim shall yet say, " What have 
I any more to do with idols ? " But idolatry inbred 
as Ephraim's was is not to be eradicated by any easy 
process ; nor would Israel be at all likely to return to 
the old paths so long since abandoned. The scriptures 
plainly declare that they should be cleansed only by 
great calamities and trials, adopting for a time a new 
religion whose refrain in song and temple service should 
be, " Lamentation, and mourning, and woe " (Eze. 2-10). 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 75 



" And the songs of the temple shall be bowlings in that day, 
saith the IiOrd <xod ; there shall be many dead bodies in every 
plaee ; they shall east them forth with SIEEXCE. And I will 
turn your feasts into mourning-, and all your songs into lamen- 
tations : and I will bring- up SACKCLOTH upon all loins, and 
BAIiDXESS upon every head ; and I will make it as the 
mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day" 
(Amos 8-3, lO). 

" Therefore the Eord of hosts, the Eord, saith thus : Availing 
shall be in all streets ; and they shall say in all the highways. 
Alas ! alas ! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, 
and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing. And in 
all vineyards shall be -wailing ; for I will pass through thee, 
saith the IiOrd" (Chap. 5-16, 17). 

44 And they shall -wander from sea to sea. and from the north 
even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word 
of the Lord, and shall not find it " (Chap. 8-12). 

"But I will ransom them from the grave : I -will redeem 
them from death " (Hos. 13-14). 

We are then to look ultimately for a people not 
known as Israel, for how then could they be hid ? we 
must look not for a people who are idolaters, but for a 
people who have been recovered from it ; who have been 
delivered from their defilement by fiery afflictions in a 
very peculiar manner according to specified conditions, 
and whose minds are open to the reception of truth — 
for that is certainly God's expressed purpose in the 
trials— which shall so remodel all their previous con- 
ceptions of the divine government, as to make them 
willing and obedient subjects of His will, or inclined to 
it. In a word, we must look for the" descendants of 
literal Israel among those who have already adopted 
or are ready to adopt the Christian religion ; in short, 
among Christian nations. We hope, therefore, to find 



76 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

many "waymarks" along the route traversed by Israel 
in his wanderings, which may help us to this conclusion. 
It is then of the first importance to this discussion 
that we understand the precise localities to which Israel 
was carried, for it is on this point mainly that an intelli- 
gent understanding of their wanderings and subsequent 
career can be had. The divine record reads thus : 

" In the days of Pekah. king; of Israel, came Tii^lath-pileser 
kins: of Assyria, and took IJon, and Afoel-heth-Maachah, and 
Janoah, and Kadesli, and Hazor. and €^ilead, ami CJallilee, all 
the land of ITanhtali, and carried them captive to Assyria" (£ 
Kings 13-29). "And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him, 
and went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the 
people of it unto KI5R, and slew Kezin," 74© B. C. (2 Kings 
16-9). 

At nearly the same time — some have it three years 
between — this same king took the Reubenites, and the 
Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh and brought 
them unto Halah, and on the Chabor a river of Gozan * 
(1 Chron. 5-26). About twenty years later Shalmaneser 
besieged Samaria (Israel's capital), but died before it 
was taken, and Sargon finished the siege successfully 
and deported the captives to the number of 27,280 
families (as the monuments tell us) into the same places 
as his predecessor had done, with this addition, " And 
into the cities of the Medes " (2 Kings 18-21). Esar- 
hadclon completed the ruin of the people by deporting 
the balance and supplying their places by foreigners 
(Ezra 4-2). 

1 Haia is omitted from the text as not belonging to it. 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 77 

That Kabor or Chabor was a river rather than Gozan 
(as the A. V. has it), an:l that the. above rendering is the 
more correct one, seems more than probable from the 
fact that in 2 Kings 19-12 and in Isaiah 37-12, Gozan is 
represented as a country of which Shalmaneser boasted 
his fathers had destroyed or desolated. Moreover Kir 
is a river in the extreme north-eastern part of Armenia 
emptying into the Caspian Sea, while the Kabor is a 
river rising in the mountainous region of what is here 
called Gozan — now Kurdistan 1 — running through its wes- 
tern borders and emptying into the Tigris. Gozan was 
probably that part of Kurdistan now called Bhutan, for 
competent scholars say that the Aramean pronuncia- 
tion of the letters of Gozan would convert the word into 
Buhtan or Bhutan. 

The river Kabor — Habor or Chebor — is called by 
Strabo, Haborran. Ptolemy calls it Chaboras, and the 
Turks call it Al-chabur - It gives its name to a large 
district there, while the whole country is well watered 
and abounds in grass and is eminently fitted to a pastoral 
people like the Israelites. As long a journey as that 
from Palestine, when such vast numbers must be fed. 
would be impossible unless they took their flocks and 
herds with them. This they were permittel to do. as 

1 It is worth noting that this is the region where Dr. Grant 
claims to have found the remnants of the "Lost Tribes," some 
forty or fifty years ago, in the Nestorians. 

2 The famous "retreat of the ten thousand," described by Xeno- 
phon, was through this very region, and they crossed a river 
Chebar on their way from Batrai to the plains of Zakko or Sacho. 



78 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

we learn from Amos 5-6. All of this country, as well. 
as Media where we are certain some of the captives 
were placed, borders the western and south-western 
shore of the Caspian Sea. 

How infinitely more probable it is that the captives 
were placed in this region, so eminently adapted to their 
needs and habits, rather than in the plains between the 
Tigris and the Euphrates as generally held. These 
plains were better adapted to an agricultural than to a 
pastoral people and besides were, probably, already occu- 
pied, while there is historical proof that Gozan had been 
devastated. It is not at all improbable that some may 
have been placed there, but the burden of proof is that 
the great body of the people were placed in the regions 
we have named. 

There is another consideration which should have 
due weight with us, and it is this. If God reserved " the 
best of the land" in Egypt and kept it comparatively 
free from occupation for the family of Jacob with their 
flocks, contiguous to the line of their retreat in after ages 
by the Ked Sea, so that they would not be obliged to go 
through large bodies of the people in passing to that 
point, is it not just as probable that God would choose 
the most feasible point in locating his people, from 
which He could most easily scatter them into all quarters 
of the world as he had promised ? The country bordering 
the western shore of the Caspian was in every respect 
adapted to all the requirements of the divine record, as 
a look at the map will show, which will be better seen as 
we proceed. ^ -' 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 79 

In that wonderful vision of Ezekiel (595 B. C.) when 
he Avas sent to them of the captivity by the river of 
Chebar to give his last testimony as a prophet to them, 
there was revealed to his astonished vision a sight which 
made his stout heart quail. Terrible visions of the 
fiery trials through which they would be called to pass 
to prepare them for their great mission of blessing to the 
world, were opened to him, and for the further purpose 
of fortifying his own soul for the delivery of God's last 
message to this rebellions house. "I remained there 
among them astonished seven days.' 1 

The prophet sees a l; whirlwind coming out of the 
north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself," — flashing 
out or. as the margin has it, " catching itself " : — 

•• And a brightness was about it. and out of the midst thereof 
came the likeness of four living; creatures. As for the like- 
ness of their fares, they four hail the face of a man. and the 
face of a lion on the right side : and they four had the face of 
an ox on the left side : they four also had the face of an eagle- 
* * * Xow as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel 
upon the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four 
faces thereof : and Jieir appearance and their work was as it 
were a wheel within a wheel. And over the head of the living 
creatures there was the likeness of a fiimament like the color 
of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above " 
(Eze. 1st chap, which see). 

That the living creatures represent Israel, through 
whom God has been through past ages and is working 
for the promised blessings, is fully evident from the fact 
that the various faces revealed in the vision have been 
the emblems of Israel from the time of their sojourn in 



80 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

the wilderness, when the four divisions of the camp were 
represented on their standards or banners by these same 
symbols. ' There is reason to believe from Ezekiel's 
exclamation in chapter 10-20th, that these same symbols 
were in some way connected with the Cherubim of the 
Temple (see also chap. 9-3). Be this as it may, we are 
sure they are the emblems of the divine energy working 
through human instrumentalities for the good of the 
world, and that instrument is Israel. 

It is well also to remember that these are the same 
symbolic faces of the " four living creatures " of the 
Apocalypse which stand around the throne and are 
nearest to it, transferred now to the Christian church, 
yet representing spiritual Israel, one and indivisible 
through all the ages, for the accomplishment of the 
divine purpose in the recovery of lost man. This is 
apparent in that they, with the four and twenty elders 
who represent the union of the twelve tribes with the 
twelve apostles (the union of the old with the new, and 
all who through them in all ages have received the 
adoption), are said to sing together the "new song " and 
to declare : 

" Thou hast redeemed us to €rod by thy hlood out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us 
unto our God kings and priests : and WE SHAIiL. REIO OX 
THE EAKTH" (Rev. 5-9, 10). 

We, Spiritual Israel, a " remnant " of carnal or 
political Israel, but increased and multiplied a thousand 



So say the Rabbins. 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 81 

times ten thousand times over by the power of Christ's 
matchless love "shall reign on the earth/' 

That the " whirlwind and the cloud and the infolding 
fire out of the north " are the symbols of some great 
influx of people driven by a resistless power from that 
quarter, who should in some way envelope Israel and 
by their very environment should become the agents of 
fiery trials by which they should become a changed, 
purified, hidden, and scattered people, is made plainly 
evident by the use made of similar symbols in other 
parts of scripture, as well as by the usage of classic 
writers. 

"Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his auger, 
and the strength of the battle : He hath set him on FIRE 
round about and it burned him. jet he laid it not to heart. For 
behold, the Ford win oome with FIRE, and his chariots like a 
WHIRL WIX£>, to render his ana: r with fury, and his rebuke 
like a flame of fire (Isa. CG-15: Jer. 49-36, 87). Yea. I will 
gather you and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye 
shall be melted in the midst. "I will bring the third part 
through the fire, and I will REF1XE THEM" (Zee. 13-9). 
Behold, he shall oome up as FLOFTOS, and his chariots shall be 
as a WHIRL WIXD : his horses are swifter than eagles (Jer. 
4-14). 

With such admonitions we are certainly warranted in 
concluding that Ezekiel's vision means nothing more 
nor less, so far as the cloud and the whirlwind are con- 
cerned, than an influx of an army of northern people 
which should infold Israel as in a cloud, and be the 
means of hiding them from the notice of the world. 

The history of the Scythian tribes is involved in almost 



82 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

impenetrable mystery, and the most conflicting accounts 
are given by different ancient authors as to their origin, 
place of abode and time of their appearance in Europe. 
This arises in great part, probably, from their being con- 
stantly mixed up with other nomad tribes from the same 
high plateaus and steppes of Southern Russia. Some 
say they came into Asia Minor through Media from the 
regions east of the Caspian Ssa, from tli3 land of the 
Chozar Tartars. Others say that in a war with the 
Kimmerians from the plateaus north of the Caucasian 
Mountains, which separat3 Europa from Asia, the Scy- 
thians drove the Kimmerians before them into the defiles 
of the mountains and were led by the eastern pass of the 
mountains bordering on the ssa, into Asia. 1 This seems 
much the more probable theory sinoe it is almost in- 
credible that such a large bo ly of warlike people could 
have appeared in the plains of Assyria, through Media, 
without attracting attention and meeting resistance. 

The first definite notice of them that can be relied on 
is that they suddenly appeared in Asia at the time of the 
revolt of Cyaxares the Mede against the power of Assyria, 
on the occasion of the siege of Nineveh in connection 
with the Babylonians (B. C. 630). At this time there 
appeared, like a thunder-clap from the clouds in a clear 
day, a vast horde of northern barbarians called Scythians 
from the region of the Caucasus, who immediately 
attacked and defeated Cyaxares and the Babylonians, 
laid low the Assyrian power, and dominated Asia for 

1 Herodotus, •.■;-. - ' . - ■' 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 83 

twenty- eight years. ! They were then defeated and 
expelled (B. C. 598), retiring, probably, to the mountain 
regions around the Araxes and Kir from which they had 
so suddenly emerged. From this same region the 
Koords for generations have descended for robbery and 
plunder upon the defenceless villages of the plains. 

In this region the ten tribes were located and, for now 
a hundred years at the time of the Scythian invasion, 
had been increasing in wealth and power and very 
rapidly in numbers. Is it not highly probable that the 
Scythians, coming into this region suddenly and finding 
a pastoral people ready for any marauding enterprise 
against their old time enemies and conquerors, with the 
added impulse of " manifest destiny/ 1 should join forces 
with them and make their descent upon the besieging 
army of Cyaxares, and then upon Nineveh itself. The 
tribes doubtless had long desired just such an opportunity, 
and when the occasion presented itself were not slow to 
accept the offer of coalition and augment the Scythian 
force by such vast numbers as to make resistance im- 
possible, even in populous and warlike Assyria. 

It is incredible to suppose that a Scythian tribal force 
could come through such a country as that occupied by 
our Tribes, a nation of fighting people and now become, 
doubtless, millions in number, on such an expedition as 
the conquest of Assyria, without receiving vast additions 
to their numbers, as well as providing themselves a base 
of. supplies and perhaps a line of retreat in case of 

1 Herodotus. ' 



84 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

defeat. But with such augmentation both the sudden- 
ness of the descent and its successful result are very 
easily accounted for. 

It matters nothing that five or six years intervene 
between their defeat and expulsion from Assyria and 
Ezekiel's later vision, and that they are already enveloped 
in the cloud and the whirlwind from the north. The 
burden of his astounding vision was the fiery trials to 
which this environing cloud should lead them. So 
heavy indeed should these misfortunes be that the very 
songs of their sanctuaries should be, " Lamentation and 
mourning and woe." It is noticeable that the calamities 
were not revealed as being in the cloud but in the " roll " 
which was given to him, " written within and without," 
full to overflowing (Chap. 2-9, 11). The cloud was only 
the agency by which they should be led into the trials 
and be hidden to the world. In a word, they were to 
become a changed people. 

Hitherto they seem to have led a quiet and peaceable 
life among the mountains and valleys of their allotted 
home, for we hear nothing whatever of them until this 
invasion of the Scythians. Not even then is the name 
of Israel mentioned as connected with them, except by 
inference from after circumstances. This is easily 
accounted for because the vision shows that they were 
enveloped by and hidden in the cloud, since the living 
creatures representing Israel, came out of the cloud. 
" And the living creatures " — with the wheels beside 
them — " ran and returned as the appearance of a flash 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 85 

of lightning"' (yer. 14). "Their api)earance was like 
burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps ; 
it went np and down among the living creatures ; and 
the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth light- 
ning* 1 (ver. 13). This shows the intimate relations 
existing between the living creatures and the cloud, 
because they ran out of and returned into it. The 
human character of the living creatures is clearly shown 
by the coals of fire and the lamp which signify, in 
symbolic prophecy, purification, many evidences of 
which are found in the scriptures. 

From the undeniable fact that soon after this time 
another people began to be mentioned with the Scy- 
thians under the name of Saea?. as interchangeable cog- 
nomens, we conclude that the surrounding powers had 
begun to realise that these almost forgotten mountain 
captives of a hundred years, had more to do with this 
incursion of Scythians than at first sight appeared. 1 

It would be impossible for such an invasion as this 
to continue in power for twenty-eight years and extend 
its sway as far as to Syria and Palestine without giving 
the people and their previous rulers more correct in- 
formation respecting its origin and the people or tribes 
composing it. 

Still another result would follow if any of the tribes 
were located in Mesopotamia — between the rivers — and 
had recognised and become identified with their brethren 
of the mountain tribes because of their ascendancy over 

1 The Persians afterwards called the whole body of them Sace. 



86 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

their oppressors, the Assyrians. They would certainly 
esteem it their opportunity as well as good policy to 
migrate in a body from the land of their captivity and, 
under the impulse of " manifest destiny," to join their 
brethren when the Assyrians regained the ascendency 
and expelled the Scythians and Sac* from the country. 

This would be a very natural result to be expected 
after such a domination when the Scythians and their 
mountain allies, the Sacse, were expelled. 

Be this as it may, it is certain the Tribes were some- 
how involved in the " cloud," and in it they lost their 
distinctive appellation of Israelites and came forth to the 
world as Scythians, whose chief element shall henceforth 
be Sacae, Sacasuni (sons of Isaac) Saxons. Strabo calls 
Armenia, Sackasina. Pliny says the Sakai who settled 
in Armenia were named Sacassani, which is only another 
form of Saka-suna. 1 Ptolemy mentions a Scythian people 
sprung from the Sakai by the name of Saxons. 2 Diodo- 
rus says the Scythians came into Europe from Asia, 
about the river Araxes in Armenia. Turner thinks it 
probable the Saxons sprang from the Sacasense near 
Persia. 3 

It would seem then from the very best authority at- 
tainable, that here in this country of Armenia (part of 
which is now called Kurdistan), where the Ark was 
moored whence Noah and his sons went forth to people 

1 This word is said by some to mean in Hebrew, people who 
have changed their place of abode. 

2 Turner's "Anglo Saxons," page 12. 

3 Turner, note 5, page 182. 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 87 

the earth anew, Israel found her living grave, in full ac- 
cord with the prophetic record so that, being baptised 
anew "in the cloud and in the sea, 1 ' the people might 
come forth from their graves unto a new resurrection 
and to a new and divinely appointed mission for the re- 
generation of the world. w * Even so, Father, for so it 
seemed good in thy sight." To this baptism by the 
cloud, the flood, and the sword we will now turn our 
attention. 

Hitherto the "Tribes" had lived in seclusion and quiet- 
ness for more than one hundred years, but no sooner 
did they become involved with the Scythians than their 
troubles commenced. A taste of this predatory and 
martial life seems to have aroused the old fire within, 
aud henceforth their career is to be one of conflict and 
"push" "unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills." 

Scarcely thirty years from their expulsion from the 
rule of Assyria we find Croesus, the king of Lydia, with 
the Babylonians gaiDing a signal victory over the Sac?e, 
who are said by Athenseus to be a Scythian people. 
Twenty years later we find Cyrus, while extending un- 
heard of bounties to the Jews of Babylonia on the oc- 
casion of their return from the seventy years captivity, 
bent on exterminating the Massa-Getae 1 and Scythians 

1 This name Massa-Getae (the Goths of Masha) is indissolubly 
mixed up with that of the Sacse and Scythians, and after 
their dispersion we hear of them in the far East. May not the 
name Masha be the same as that mentioned in Genesis ( 10-23), and 
the very name of Getae be derived from that of the inhabitants of 
Gath. The Getse are mixed up with the Sacse as the Gitites were 



88 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

about the Araxes and Kir. 1 He penetrated their country 
with a large army and inflicted terrible sufferings upon 
them as appears from an inscription on the wall of a 
rock-temple in Kanari about twenty miles from Bombay. 
From this and others of the same kind it would appear 
that other and deeper afflictions by fire and flood had 
come upon them and changed their whole religious char- 
acter at least and fulfilled to the letter the inspired 
record of their departure from God. 

Jeremiah speaks of Ephraim in very tender terms, 
saying : 

" I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus :— 
'Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock 
unaccustomed to the yoke : turn Thou me and I shall be 
turned ; for Thou art the ILord my God.' Set thee up WAY- 
MARKS, make thee high HEAPS, set thine heart toward 
the highway, even the way by which Thou wentest ; turn 
again, O virgin of Israel" (Jer. 31-18, SI). 

Bear in mind this prophecy was spoken in Judea 
more than one hundred years after the Tribes were 
carried captive, and it is by these very " waymarks " and 
" heaps " that light is being thrown on the wanderings 
and sufferings of this hitherto hidden people. These 
inscriptions have been cut on pillars and temples, 
tumuli and rock-chambers, and on the scarped face of 
mountains from Thibet to lower India and Ceylon. 
Hitherto they have remained undeciphered and inex- 



with the Israelites, and used the same language. There were 
Gitites (Getae), men of Gath, in the body guard of David. 
1 Herodotus. 



THE TWOFOLD- AGESCY. 89 

plicable on account of being written in an unknown 
language, with the alphabet of another language well 
known according to the locality in which the incriptions 
are found, some of them being in the Arian or Bactrian 
character, and some in early Pali, more than a thousand 
miles apart. All these inscriptions have the same gener- 
al character, often being simple repetitions, and again 
differing materially in construction and manner of writ- 
ing, while the sentiment is the same throughout' the 
whole. 1 Only a few extracts can be given here to illus- 
trate the fulfillment of the divine record respecting the 
calamities which were to overtake them. 

Many of these inscriptions are now by fac-simile 
transfer, in the British Museum, and the sad refrain of 
every one is nearly in the words of the prophet. "Lamen- 
tation, mourning and woe." The following is the one 
recently found at Kanari already referred to but not 
in the above collection : 

"The soft flowing of the wine-press from the white gushing 
fruit is as that which sets me at rest ; my drink, the refining of 
the fruit is the very grace of his mouth. Behold what thou 
posses?est, yen, even the gladsomeness in it that is ministered to 
tl.ee. Lo, the worship (or blood) of' Saka is the fruit of my lip ; 
his garden (paradise) which Gyres laid low was glowing red ; 
and behold it is blackened. His people being aroused would 
have their rights, for they were cast down at the parting, of .Dan. 
who being delivered was perfectly free. -* * * - Every one 

1 For further information we refer the reader to " Lost Tribes,'* 
by. Dr, Geo.. Moore, Ijo ; ndon... 1861, These inscriptions, have been 
deciphered by Dr. Moore and found to be written. in Hebrew. 



90 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



grew mighty : your religion had saved eveu him from unclean- 
ness. And his (Saka's) mouth, enkindling them, brought the 
£>erim 1 together from the race of Hakaki 2 My mouth also 
fastened the rupture, and as one obeying my hand thou didst 
sing praise. O unclean one, his religious decree is his bow. He 
who complains of inflicted equality turns aside. My gift is 
freedom to him who is fettered, the freedom of the polluted is 
penitence. As to Dan his unloosing was destruction, oppression 
and strife ; he stoutly turned away, he departed twice. The pre- 
determined thought is a hand prepared. The redeemed of 
Xasha wandered about like the (flock) overdriven. The prepared 
was the ready, yea, Gotha, that watched for the presence of 
Dan, afforded concealment to the exile whose vexations became 
Ms triumphs ; and Saka also, being re invigorated by the Calamity, 
purified the East, the vices of which he branded." 3 

Here are a few lines from an inscription found at 
•" Joonur " on the wall of a rock-chamber near the sum- 
mit of Naneh-Ghat Mountain, India, and translated by 
Dr. Moore : 

•" His perfection was as that of one purified, 
Bubning Coals were the light of their fires (burnt offerings), 
The guilt offering of those who were polluted. 
He conceived a sea (for purification). 
Behold, my house (or temple) was a ruin, 
My generation was polluted, we were unclean ; 



1 " Serim— Seres (free or princes). A people called Seres have 
been the cause of much doubtful discussion." See "Latham's 
Ethnological Essays." 

2 People of the hill country of Ephraim are so called (2 Sam. 
23-11, 33). 

3 Historical researches on the origin of the Buddha and Jaina 
religions by Jas. Bird, Esq. 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 91 



The fire became a means of healing, 

A root of exalted piety shot forth. 

The equity (or equality) of Badh was set up. * * * 

The poor were enlightened, 

Calamity, overruled by Saka, became a triumph and delight. 

The decree of their mouth was baldness. 

The silence of my bitterness was exaltation." 

The following is the refrain of an inscription on a rock 
at Girnar, with a few lines following the first two out 
of more than live hundred : 

" The mouth of Kuin hath pleaded their cause, 
Destruction hath become their enlightenment. 
I will meditate, O God, on the woe that ruin hath wrought, 
I will meditate, and the fire which smote shall be my grace, 
The suffering thereof shall be my exaltation. 
O sea, as in the day of thy trouble, thou breakest to pieces. 
The perfection of Ruin, Calamity, and Truth, is my diadem, 
* * * He hath made it the ornament of the head. 
Here the choicest part of thy Calamity is its oppressiveness. 
Why have I raised up a heap of ruin ? 
Because the mounds thus afford a conception 
Of the havoc the Calamity produced. 
Behold it is even thy direction, the appointed guide. 
Lo ! the sea is parched up whereby the Calamity came ; 
As it is perfect (or ended), the sign is sufficient." 

The inscription at Delhi is very nearly the same with 
the Girnar inscription but of a higher order, and appears 
to have been used as a hymn in the worship of the 
temple. In other inscriptions the name of Godama is 
said to be that of Saka or Sakya, and to have been given 



i 



92 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

to him after death when, as Buddhists believe, he became 
like God. 

In what way these calamities by lire and flood came, 
there are no means of knowing, but that in them and 
by them they were delivered from idolatry^ seems certain 
from the inscriptions which throughout speak of them 
as the means of their purification, and that the heaps 
of ruin were but the mementoes of their afflictions. 

The monuments of this new religion, which' was in- 
troduced some time before the conquests of Alexander 
(B. C. 334), may be traced from Bactria, close on the 
borders of the Caspian Sea, through Mongolia and Thibet 
to China,, through India to Ceylon ) Burmah and Siam. 
In the providence of God the calamities may have fol- 
lowed close on to the disasters inflicted by Cyrus (B. 
C. 540) and were made the means at once of their 
purification and their dispersion as intimated in the 
Kanari inscription, for. Saka or Sakya, soon after the 
reception of his "enlightenment" by "destruction," set 
about purifying the East. ■<- •■ •■■■•■ - ! 

It is by such inscriptions, waymarks and "heaps as 
these, not a titlie of which can be given here, and all of 
which contain names , and allusions pointing, in a very 
marked degree to a Hebrew origin, that the way of the 
wanderers- has been traced within a very few years in 
countries which have,- until recently been a ierrti incog- 
mita or unknown land to- the world. By these we learn 
that Saka, ; or Sakya as in .some- inscription s$ whose name 
is* intimately ■ connected with the Sacse, Scythians and 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 93 

Getae, or Goths, was the founder of a new religion in 
which negation of self, repentance and regeneration 
through submission to the divine decrees in suffering, 
were the essential elements. In his progress towards 
regeneration during a week of weeks he formulates his 
experience thus : — 

" All treasures must be emptied, 
All loftiness must fall. 
All earthly union must be broken, 
All that lives must die.' 1 

Further experiences in trial and suffering, voluntarily 
endured, ending in a still higher perception of Spiritual 
truth, are thus expressed : — 

h The strength of Mercy is firmer than a rock. 
Faith in unbounded Mercy is the rule, 
The path to holiness, the way to heaven. " 

The emblems of this new faith appear to have been 
"heaps" (mani) of rubbish, sackcloth and boldness, 
and this religion was none other than the Buddha whose 
festivals are mourning, and who^e songs are lamenta- 
tions, aud those who are devoted to Buddha adopt sack- 
cloth as their clothing and baldness is on all heads. 
The baldheaded devotees of Buddha are "sons of sack- 
cloth," and the ordination of priests is to this day a re- 
finement of austerity. According to their Book of 
Ritual they are required to wear a robe of filthy rags 
and subject themselves to every form of degradation, 1 

1 Moore's " Lost Tribes," page 344. 



94 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

In all this we see a complete, fulfillment of the prophetic 
record, for Ezekiel says : 

** That which cometh into your minds shall not be at all that 
ye say :-'We will he as the heathen, as the families of the 
countries, to serve wood and stone ' : and ye shall loathe your- 
selves in your own sight for all your evils that you have com- 
mitted" (JEze. aO-33, 43). 

" And the songs of the temple shall be bowlings in that day, 
saith the Liord God ; there shall be many dead bodies in every 
place ; they shall cast them forth with SILENCE. And 5 will 
turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into 
lamentation ; and I will bring wp SACKCLOTH upon all loins, 
and BALDNESS upon every head ; and I will make it as the 
mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day" 
(Amos 8-3, 10:5-16). 

"And they shall gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror 
shall cover them ; and shame shall be upon all faces, and bald- 
ness upon all their heads" (Eze. ?-18). 

Now we know from various sources, especially from 
the primitive forms still retained in Thibet, that this was 
the religion of the Buddha as first introduced into the 
countries contiguous to the eastern and southern shores 
of the Caspian Sea. The Thibetans say that Sacke taught 
them their religion and that the people were called 
Sacki (Sackse). The heaps of ruin and rubbish which 
they venerate and call mani are very suggestive of the 
words of Isaiah (65-11) : "But ye are they that forsake 
my holy mountain, that prepare a table for Fortune, 
that fill up mingled wine unto Destiny 1 (goddess of 
Fate) ; I will destine you to the sword and ye shall all 
bow down to the slaughter." 

1 Mar. Eev. Heb. Mem. 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 95 



These heaps mark the graves of the Israelites, or 
rather now the " house of Isaac" (as Amos said they 
should be called) under their new names of Sackse, 
Getse or Goths, in all their wanderings. They were 
erected as an expression of a "covenant with Destruc- 
tion." l But Isaiah, in speaking of Ephraim, says : 

" Your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your 
agreement with hell shall not stand : when the overflowing 
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by 

it" (£8-18). 

Very numerous are these coincidences between the 
ancient Buddhistic faith and the prophetic record of the 
wanderings of the house'of Isaac. The most remarkable 
of these was the belief as taught by Saka, Sakya or 
Godama, that the ultimate Buddha — Bagava Metteyo, the 
Messiah — is yet to come, and this word Metteyo is said 
to be the very word used by the prophet Ezekiel ( 34- 
29). The legend of the Karens in Burmah is similar : 

" When the Karen king arrives, 
There will be but one Monarch. 
There will be neither rich nor poor ; 
Everything will be happy ; 
The beasts will be happy ; 
Lions and leopards will lose their savageness." 

But we are not entirely dependent on these rock 
records for our knowledge of the wanderings of the 

1 A heap of stones was raised over Achan and his family (Josh. 
8-28) ; and this seems to have been a frequent usage with the 
early Hebrews. See Deut. 13-16 ; Gen. 31-52 ; 2 Sam. 18-17. 



96 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

tribes into the far East, which must have occurred at 
some time between the wars of Cyrus against them 
(B. O. 540) and the conquests of Alexander in the 
Orient (334 B. C.) when we find them among his most 
formidable adversaries. Afterwards he found it to his 
advantage to enter into peaceful relations with them and 
employed large numbers in further expeditions. Ptolemy, 
in his, geography of these parts (Afghanistan) locates 
the Aristopliyli or "The Noble Tribes," near Cabul, a 
name at once suggestive of the Cabul of Palestine which 
Solomon gave to King Hiram, which signifies sandy. 
(1 Kings 9-13). Much of the country to which the 
name was transferred certainly warrants the application. 
He also places the " Tos Manassa" ("The far-banished 
Manasseh ? ' ) in the land of the Gomeri 1 (the Gomer of 
the Bible). They are also called Isakzie and frequently 
by Herodotus the Sacse. 

The Hebrews in Mowr as well as those in Bokhara 
assured Bev. J. Wolff that there are many of the chil- 
dren of Israel of the tribes. of Napthtali and Zebulun in 
the Hindu Cush, and. that, they lived by robbery and 
knew the exclamation, "• Shama Yisrael ! " (Hear, O 
Israel. 2 ) The following passage from a letter written 
by an officer in India will throw some light on this 
subject. It is dated from Headquarters, Camp Mimi- 
Ua}a, Jan. £0,, 1852 :-- , , , , , .;.. , 

" Having just been through a part of Afghanistan Proper, 

^Forster on. Primeval Language.' * 

2 Wolff's Mission to Bokhara,- Vol; '2,"page 165. 



THE TWOFOLD AGENCY. 97 



I cannot help writing to tell yon how I was struck by 
the Jewishness of the people. ; and not only their appear- 
ance, but every possible circumstance tends to convince 
one that they are the descendants' of the Ten Tribes. 
They call themselves Bunnie Israel (Bunnie being 
exactly synonymous with 'Mac" in Scotland and 4 Fitz' 
in England) and are proud of i :; whereas to all other 
Mahometans a more severe term of abuse cannot be 
applied than Tahoodee, or Jew. We' may observe that 
these so-called Benee-Israel despise the Jews almost as 
much as any Mahometan people can. They pride them- 
selves on being the sons of Israel in contradistinction 
from the people of Judah ; a strong presumptive evi- 
dence that they are really derived from the Israelites, 
especially as this distinction has been maintained from 
time immemorial amongst them. One of the tribes that 
at present are giving us a good deal of trouble is called 
" Yousufzfe?" or trib3 of Joseph, " zie" meaning tribe ; 
and next to them are the Izakzie, or tribe of Isaac." 

This certainly shows evidence corroborative of what 
we have shown by the inscriptions, some of which are 
located in the vicinity of these people, and also that 
they have adopted other names than those by which 
they were known in their old home in Palestine, but 
which the prophet declared should be their distinctive 
titles in the land of their wanderings (Amos 7-9, 16). 
"For in Isaac shall thy seed be called" (Bom. 9-7 : 
Heb. 11-18). We would like very much to quote in full 
a passage from the Apocryphal book of Esdras (2 book 



98 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

13-39 to 46) which, doubtless may be taken as historical 
evidence of their intention to go into a further country 
over the waters of the river (Euphrates), but will only 
quote a few lines. " For the Most High then showed 
signs for them, and held still the flood till they were 
passed over ; for through that country there was a great 
way to go, namely, of a year and a half ; and the same 
region is called Arsareth. Then they dwelt there until 
the latter time ; and now when they shall begin to come, 
the Highest will stay the springs of the stream again, 
that they may come through ; therefore sawest thou the 
multitudes with peace." * 

This word Arsareth is held to be the equivalent of 
" Oriens, the Orient, the land of the far East, the coun- 
try always called Oriental." 2 

The Casiphia to which Ezra sent for " ministers for 
the house of God " (8-17) is also recognised as the name 
of a country on the borders of the Caspian Sea. 3 But 
we think sufficient has been shown to prove that a very 
large portion of the tribes went into the far East and 
permeated the land from one end to the other with a 
new faith which, though a false one and now degenerated, 



1 Can it be that St. John alludes to this when he says : " The 
sixth Angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates ; 
and the waters thereof were dried up that the way of the kings 
from the sun-rising might be prepared " (Kev. 16-12). 

2 The country along the river Khorazan in Cabul is still called 
Hazara, believed to be the same with Bar-Zaura of the ancients, 
signifying the sous of Sarah.— Dr. Moore. 

3 Dr. Henderson's Russian Researches. 



ISRAEL IN EUROPE. 99 



was a vast improvement over idolatry and prepared the 
way for Muhamadism which is iconoclastic to a degree. 
Let us now turn our attention to that branch that left 
Armenia to enter Europe for the regeneration of the 
world. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ISRAEL IN EUROPE, A MULTITUDE OF NATIONS," 

THE TALL CEDAR PLANTED BY 

GREAT WATERS. 

" Ah, the land of the rustling of wings which is beyond the 
rivers of Cush ; x that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in 
vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying : ' Go, ye swift mes- 
sengers to a nation dragged away and peeled, to a people terrible 
from their beginning onward ; a nation meted out and trodden 
down, whose land the rivers have spoiled? " (Isa. 18-1, 2). 

Having followed our Tribes into the far East by the 
monuments of a former age, but recently deciphered and 
found to be of Hebrew origin, written in the Hebrew 
language and telling in unmistakable terms the history 
of their terrible disasters which came upon them for 
their obstinacy and idolatry, we will leave them there 

1 Indo. Cush. 



100 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

-until the drying up of Euphrates shall prepare the way 
for their return' in such manner and by such means as 
God in his infinite wisdom may provide. 

We now return to the early home of the captives in 
Armenia, on the confines of Europe, to those who were 
delegated of God for a western migration, for the record 
says, "They shall wander from sea to sea, and from the 
North even to the East." This can have but one mean- 
ing, covering a hemisphere and stretching from ocean 
to ocean — from the Atlantic to the Pacific, because it is 
emphatically declared that their migrations and their 
" manifest destiny " for pushing things, should extend 
" to the ; utmost bound^of the everlasting hills." Better 
accept the inevitable and go along with us as we follow 
the sons of Isaac and Joseph to the outer edge of the 
world's land surface, and then by faith Israel shall take 
a " new departure " to a new home from which she shall 
never be moved. 

Doubtless the Scythians who had received such in- 
formation from the Tribes on their entrance into Asia 
of the rich plunder to be obtained by a descent upon the 
Assyrians, were now able to reciprocate the favor and 
tell the Tribes of the rich spoil to be had from the 
southern nations of Europe, lying along the Mediter- 
ranean. Since they had become objects of hatred to the 
Medo-lPersian kings, and had met so many evidences of 
the Divine judgments in their own mountain home, after 
their environment by the northern cloud, we may fairly 
suppose they were desirous to get away from a place of 



ISEAEL IN EUROPE. 101 



such sad reminiscences, and betake themselves to a pre- 
datory and pushing life which promised such rich spoils. 
We may fairly suppose also that such a vast country 
as Europe must have been represented to them, though 
but little known save that it was but thinly inhabited by 
nomad tribes and offered immense fields for their flocks 
and herds, would offer a strong inducement to the Tribes 
that were left to follow the northern trail past the Cau- 
casian Mountains and into Europe. 

But suppositions are not arguments by any means and 
we desire if possible to connect the Scythians, who are 
now generally admitted to have peopled Northern 
Europe, with the Sc3tlrians and Sackae who were found, 
not long after Cyrus' conflict with them on the Araxes 
and Kir, to have migrated to the far East and to have 
been at first, the most formidable adversaries of Alex- 
ander two hundred years later, and afterwards his, most 
trusted allies. By the inscriptions, the Buddhist faith 
and the divine record, we have a reasonable basis for 
connecting these of the far East with the Hebrews of 
the house of Isaac and Joseph. But what reason have 
we for supposing that any of the Tribes were left in 
their mountain homes. In the absence of monuments 
how are we to connect the Scythians and Sackae. of the 
East with those who. entered Europe. 
... Let us rem emter. that God's way of proving the, pro- 
phetic records is to look at l-esulfs rather than at causes ; 
at the end of. .the race, rather than at the -beginning for 
the time and ciicumst apneas of the starting.. On this 



102 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

hypothesis, if we are able to find a people in the latter 
•days filling all the conditions of the prophecies, by 
whatever name they may be called, we have found the 
true Israel and should be satisfied. But as human 
minds will not be satisfied in full with that kind of 
evidence, we must hunt up something additional. 

In what is known as the " Behistun " inscription found 
inscribed on a rock in Persia not much later than the 
time of Cyrus, three classes of Sacse are mentioned, 
namely : " The Sacse named next to India, the Sacse 
who use arrows, and the Sacae who are said to be beyond 
the river." We have already considered those located 
on the borders of India and here we find two other 
divisions ; one distinguished as bowmen, and the other 
as that " beyond the river," but what river is not named. 
Could it be that any considerable number still re- 
mained between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates where 
popular belief has located the whole body ? Or could 
it have been the Araxes where Cyrus encountered them, 
and to which the popular attention might have been 
turned on that account ?. 

Be this as it may, we are disposed to believe that the 
third division at least — the one famous in the use of the 
bow, with which arrows are of necessity connected — was 
the division which entered Europe, since all accounts 
agree that the Saxon element of the Scythian invasion 
was also famous in the use of the bow. Even as late as 
the conquest of England by the Saxons they were famous 
as bowmen. But since Dr. Moore thinks that the word 



ISRAEL IN EUROPE. 103 

translated from the inscription — "beyond" — has the 
meaning of " gone beyond "---and this would fully agree 
with the record of Esdras — we feel quite persuaded to 
believe that the second division joined their brethren 
of the third division and entered Europe with them, 
rather than have attempted to join their brethren in the 
far East, which would have been a difficult undertaking 
through hostile Media. We hear of no great body of 
these people anywhere in Western Asia after this great 
exodus a little later than the time of Cyrus, though 
doubtless some of them did remain and continue to this 
day in those regions. 

We have still to connect these Scythians with the 
Sacse of the East and with the house of Isaac, for we have 
only got so far as to separate them into three great 
divisions, and that they did not all " go East " as many 
have supposed. In that case not one-tenth of the condi- 
tions of prophecy would have been complied with. In 
most of the early accounts of the Scythian invasion of 
Europe we find the Saxons and Goths mentioned as form- 
ing a large component part with other minor divis- 
ions, but altogether a vast horde who were a constant 
menace to Southern Europe. They were known to the 
Latins as Sacae and to the Greeks as Sakai. 

Here again the Behistun inscription comes to our 
aid, for the name is there rendered from the Scy thic 
version Saakka, but which Dr. Moore renders into its 
Hebrew equivalents and finds the very word Isaac 
without the initial which properly forms no part of the 



104 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

name— a name so peculiarly Hebrew that it can hardly 
have any other derivation than that given to* it in 
Holy Writ. The people dwelling by the Chebar are 
called an the Assy rian monuments Sucki or Saake, as 
translated by Rawlinson. From either word, if derived 
from any Hebrew word common also to the Chaldee, it 
would mean according to the same authority, a people 
emptied from one place into another. We have the 
same wo in use to-day in cur word to sack a city. 
The second would simply mean sons of Isaac as the 
prophet Amos speaks of them. So that in whatever 
form we find the word we seem forced to the one conclu- 
sion that it is. indissolubly connected with the Hebrews 
and the Patriarch Isaac. We shall presently see. that 
all accounts agree that the Scythians came from Asia. 
If the Scythians came from there so did the Saxons, 
and the Sacse, Sakai, Saxons are of Hebrew origin. 

The earliest occupation of Europe of which we have 
any account was by the ■ Kimmerian and Keltic races, 
the first of which was said to have led the Scythians 
into Asia. But the second influx, of peoples were the 
Scythian and Gothic tribes. From these, all the mod- 
ern nations of Europe: are descended and, known to us 
as Anglo-Saxons, Lowland Scotch, Normans, Danes, 
Swedes, Germans, Dutch, Belgians, and Lombards. l 
Herodotus gives the time of their first appearance in 
Europe as between the .seventh and eighth, centuries 
before Christ. This id evidently altogether too early 

• x Turners's Anglo-Saxons. - 



ISKAEL IN EUROPE. 105 



since very little was known of the wild tribes in those 
far oi£ regions, and they might easily be confounded 
with the Kimmerians. Ptolemy is the first to mention 
the Saxons in Europe, and he says that previous to his 
time ( 140 A. D. ) they were a considerable people on 
the north side of the Elbe. Diodorus says the Scythi- 
ans commenced their career about the Araxes, just 
where we have shown the marauding bands of Scythians 
from the Caucasus to have met our Tribes and with 
them to have made their descent upon Assyria and to 
have ruled it for twenty-eight years. This, the monu- 
ments prove conclusively, took place B. C. 641 to 633. 
They were certainly there as late as the time of Cyrus 
one hundred years later, so that the statement of Hero- 
dotus can hardly be credited. ' 

Having by fair deductions and historical evidences 
brought the history of our Tribes — or a very consider- 
able part of them — from their graves in Asia into the 
borders of Europe, it is comparatively an easy task to 
trace them the rest of the way, for they remain true to 
the prophetic record : — 

"With them he shall push the people together to the ends of 
the earth : and they are the ten thousands of Fphraim. and 
they are the thousands of JIanasseh."' 

The earliest notice we have of these invaders in re- 

1 Herodotus lived. only 450 B. C. and was largely dependent, ac- 
cording to his own account, on hearsay and is often incorrect, 
especially in matters before his time. His account would make it 
synchronous with the founding of Eome. 



106 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



spect to location is of a people called Saxoi on the west- 
ern shores of the Euxine or Black Sea, said to have 
been left there as a colony when the great body of them 
was passing on to the more central parts of Enrope. 1 

We learn, moreover, that just before Alexander under- 
took his conquest of Asia he crossed the Danube, 
which empties into the sea on the West, to attack the 
Getse who had been making inroads upon the outlying 
settlements of his kingdom. This was B. C. 335. 2 
Now, as we know the Getse and Sacas or Saxoi — or Sakai 
as the Greeks called them — pertain emphatically to our 
Tribes and to no others, we have here fair proof that 
they had got as far as the western shore of the Black 
Sea, near the Danube, as early and as late as Alexander's 
time. This is probably the earliest and only authentic 
record of their first appearance in Europe. 

It will be noticed that the time between Cyrus and 
Alexander will give ample time for all the mighty 
changes which came to them by reason of flood, fire and 
the sword, and enable them to move at their leisure 
with families, flocks and herds. It is not to be sup- 
posed that such warlike tribes could move over such 
vast spaces of territory without meeting everywhere 
other warlike tribes to contest for a time their progress, 
so that their movements would necessarily be slow. 
" Manifest Destiny " is also an impelling power not to 
be lost sight of, respecting which no precise calculations 
can well be made. The time for the punishment of the 

1 Turner's Anglo-Saxons, page 83. 2 Cyc. Brifc. 



ISRAEL IN EUROPE. 107 



nations, grown corrupt and effete by reason of their 
idolatrous practices, had not yet come. But because the 
Merciful Father will not strike until ample opportunity 
has been given for repentance, these hordes of maraud- 
ers who have not inaptly been termed " The Scourge 
of God," were held in restraint until the gospel had 
been " preached in all the world for a witness unto 
all people." 

But time speeds on and the " cup of indignation " has 
come to the full, and Borne with its gathered treasures 
from all quarters of the globe, offers a rich harvest of 
spoils to these hungry freebooters for extensive and 
long continued depredations. Between 408 and 410 A. D. 
Borne was besieged three times by them and only 
delivered by immense ransom or by pillage. In 490 
A. D. one of their number (Odoacer) ruled Italy, at 
which time the fate of Borne had for a long while hung 
upon the sword of these formidable strangers who began 
to trouble the Empire as early as the third century after 
Christ. 1 

Gibbon gives a minute and comprehensive account of 
these ravages under Alaric and those following him, and 
the almost incredible amount of plunder of every de- 
scription which they carried away. Yet amidst all the 
barbarities incident to such times, there are recorded 
many traits of character showing them to be altogether 
superior in many respects to the corrupt nobility whom 
they displaced. Alaric himself gave special orders that 

1 Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." 



108 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

unarmed citizens should not be molested, and that Chris- 
tian churches should be inviolate. War, indeed, drove 
the people from the fields ; but famine, pestilence and 
the forty thousand slaves of Rome were the chief causes 
of the terrible destruction of the people. 

As a general thing they did not assimilate with the 
conquered people but drove them before them and 
supplied their places with better and more robust 
material with which in after years to continue the life 
of the nations just ready to drop out of line. Charles 
Kingsley says: "These wild tribes (the Gothic) were 
bringing with them into the magic circle of the Western 
Church's influence the very materials which she 
required for the building up of a future Christendom. 
The new invaders divided Europe among themselves." 
This same influence was exerted wherever they came, 
which served to give new life to the old effete civilisations 
of southern Europe. They introduced new customs, 
laws, and language, which so intertwined with the 
existing order of things as to impart to them a new tone 
and vigor ; indeed, they gave a new lease of life to that 
which was ready to die out from sheer exhaustion. Such 
was the case in a very marked degree throughout Italy 
and Greece, and the influence was but little lessened in 
the remoter portions of the Empire. 

But not alone on the borders of the southern States 
of Europe are these Saxon and Gothic nations penetra- 
ting with their almost resistless arms. They are stretching 
across to the northern shores of Europe on the Baltic 



ISRAEL IN EUROPE. 109 

and North seas, and westward along the channel. Every- 
where they are pushing the people before them to find 
escape or an asylum in large or small bodies wherever 
they can, but preserving in the main their own individual 
and tribal characteristics of race, language and customs. 
We learn that they were so proud of their descent and 
stalwart physique that marriages with other nations 
were rare. l Especially was this the case with the Sacae 
or Saxons, and to such an extent was this carried that 
it is asserted of those who afterwards settled New 
England, that a race of purer blood could hardly be 
found the world over. 

Having renounced the worship of idols— as we have 
shown — before leaving Armenia, it is not surprising 
that we find the Tribes, six or seven hundred years later, 
with a sort of conglomerate faith and worship hard to 
be understood, about which ancient historians have very 
little that can be relied on, so conflicting are their 
accounts. Doubtless they are indulging in very many 
rites and usages more or less heathenish. Yet if they 
had not renounced idolatry, how then can we account 
for the immunity granted to Christian churches which 
not only afforded in themselves rich fields for plunder 
but were made the receptacles of treasures by many 
when this fact became known ? ' Moreover, it is pretty 
well established that the Saxons paid divine honors to 

1 Turner's Anglo-Saxons, page 143. Tacitus also testifies that 
monogamy was the universal rule and polygamy almost unknown. 

2 Gibbon's Decline and Fall. 



110 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Goclam 1 which is, doubtless, an abbreviation of Godama, 
a name very early applied as we have seen to Saka or 
Sakya the founder of Buddhism and meaning God-like. 
From this source we have our name of God and Wed- 
nesday — Wodensday or God's-day — Woden being first 
known as Goadem, then Godem and finally Woden. 
Odin of the Scandinavians, celebrated in song as the 
soul-giver is, probably, another form of the same word. 
Doubtless many other forms, modified by time and 
changing dialects, are to be found among these Saxon, 
Gothic and Scythian tribes, which have been charged to 
them by ancient writers as veritable heathen gods. 

It cannot be denied that these so-called Scythic na- 
tions — especially that portion entitled Saxon — were far 
above the heathen nations in general in all physical, 
moral and intellectual endowments. Their agility, the 
swiftness of their movements, great endurance and 
bravery, are especially noted. In this, one is reminded 
of Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam. 1-23) who "were swifter 
than eagles, they were stronger than lions ;" also, of the 
Gadites who "separated themselves unto David," "men 
of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and 
buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and 
were as swift as the roes upon the mountains" (1 Ohro. 
12-8) ; also, of the quotation at the head of this chapter : 
"To a people terrible fiom their beginning onward." 
The whole history of these " multitude of nations " in 

1 Mengel's History of Germany, and Latham's Ethnology of the 
British Isles. 



ISRAEL IN EUROPE. Ill 



the far East and of those who went into Europe, tells 
the same story that the prophets declared ages ago, and 
points as with a pen of iron to a future destiny at once 
irresistible and immeasurable. 

Among the more conspicuous of these pushing con- 
querers were the Engels from Engel-land bordering on 
the Jutland peninsula between the Baltic and North 
seas. Whether invited over by the public council of 
the king and chiefs of Britain to resist the inroads of 
the Irish and Picts, or seeking for further conquests on 
their own account, matters not. Certain it is that 
about the year 449 or 453 A. D., some three hundred 
men 1 headed by Horsa and Hengist, all pure Saxons, 
crossed the Channel and entered Britanny — to stay. 
But a few years elapse and we find them assuming the 
government of that portion of the kingdom in which 
they were located — the county of Kent — and inviting 
more of their people over from the main land for fu- 
ture operations. 

True to their nature and " manifest destiny " we find 
them pushing the native Britons more and more to the 
boundaries of the island, being constantly reinforced * 
by their brethren from Jutland and Saxony until but a 
remnant of the original Kimmerian and Keltic settlers 
of Britain were left, principally in Cornwall and Wales. 
"The ancient inhabitants and the progeny of the Eo- 
man settlers disappeared as the new conquerors ad- 

1 Turner's Anglo-Saxons, page 181. 

2 Turner's Anglo-Saxons, page 75. 



112 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

vanced — or accepted their yoke — and Saxon laws, Sax- 
on language, Saxon manners, government, and institu- 
tions, overspread the land." 

There are many interesting circumstances connected 
with the influx of the Anglo-Saxons, which go to show 
some connection with a people of Hebrew origin. We 
give below a portion of a poem as the prayer of five 
hundred men who came over in five ships, which is 
suspected to be Hebrew in consequence of Taliesen the 
bard (600 A. D. ) having declared that his lore had been 
delivered to him in Hebrew * or Hebraic. A translation 
by Dr. Moore is offered : 2 

" And I have made a covenant — a Heap, 
A home of wood is a home, my guide, 
I have made a covenant, O ship, 
Sak is my guide, my guide, he is my Friend." 

There are said to be more than &vq hundred words of 
Persian origin in the English language, derived, proba- 
bly, by the Sacse or Saxons in their early intercourse 
with Persia and thus brought into England. There are, 
also very many words with Hebrew roots — good authori- 
ties say one thousand — which can only be accounted 
for on the supposition of a Hebrew origin and a con-, 
nection with. the Sons of Isaac. 

. The cut on the page opposite the preface. shows the 
essential features of the English Coat of Arms and the 

1 Rev. E. Davies' Mythology of the British Druids. 

2 Lost Tribes, 173. 



ISRAEL IN EUEOPE. 113 



star banner, somewhat modified indeed in the lapse of 
time since they were cut in the vast rock chamber of 
Ajanta or engraved on the gates of the tope at Sanchi 
or Sachi. The trident is peculiar to British coins. The 
star banner is little known and quite in disuse ; doubt- 
less, that the stars might become the peculiar legacy 
to the "man child," "the stone of Israel" across the 
water, since " icestward the star of empire takes its 
way." 

The Saxons always boasted of their As-Khan, that is 
Asian prince. An old MS. in the Vatican says they 
oame from Esco or Yisico (Isaac ?), (2) Arminius 
(Armenia?), and (3) Ingo or India. 1 Capt. Wilford 
has shown from the Puranas that the British Isles were 
•called Saccam.' 2 The " White Island in the West " (Eng- 
land) was called in India, Sacana, from the Sac;e who 
conquered it. The Karens of Burinah told the first mis- 
sionaries that messengers would come from the " White 
Island" to teach them the true way. These are only 
"straws," but the}' serve to "show which way the wind 
blows." 

Though many benefits were conferred by the Boman 
conquest and occupation of Britain, the influx of the 
Saxons offered a vastly superior foundation for a more 
enduring civilisation in that, while they were by nature 
and occupation freebooters and rovers, they brought 
with them — strange as it may appear — superior domes- 



1 Dr. Moore's "Lost Tribes," page 354. 

2 Asiatic Res. II., page 54. 



114 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

tic and moral character and the rudiments of new politi- 
cal, judicial and intellectual life. 1 

While they adopted many of the usages of the con- 
quered, they greatly improved them by the addition of 
their own, and continued as heretofore to keep them- 
selves a unique and predominating race, both in lan- 
guage and social life. To them we owe not only the 
name but the very idea of true home life, so foreign to* 
the civilisations of Greece and Home. But with all 
these qualifications there was yet needed a softening in- 
fluence, a toning down of the terrific harshness of the 
Saxon tongue, and of exterior manners born of their 
wild, predatory life. Leaving our Anglo-Saxons to 
" 'push' things," let us turn our attention very briefly 
to this mollifying agency. 

The time never seems to have been when wars and 
conflicts were not in progress between the numerous 
States of the Teutonic or Gothic races and the older 
civilisations of the south of Europe, as already noticed ; 
while the roving expeditions by sea from the northern 
countries, afforded a constant menace to the coast inhabit- 
ants and cities, from the North Sea to the Mediter- 
ranean and made the very name of Northmen a terror. 
Early in the 9th century they entered Gaul or France, 
but not content with simply entering, their roving dis- 
position led them to keep on pushing and plundering 
until they came out on the other side, when many of 
them settled down in Sicily and Lombardy. In the 

1 Turner's Anglo-Saxons. 



ISRAEL IN EUROPE. 115 



early centuries they were freebooters ; in the eleventh 
and twelfth they were the best of Crusaders and, in fact, 
aided very materially in stemming the tide of Turkish 
invasion which threatened to overspread Europe. 

Early in the ninth century these Northmen in large 
numbers settled down in Normandy, a province in the 
north of France bordering on the English Channel, who 
were destined to exert a very powerful influence for all 
time on their Saxon brethren across the Channel, from 
whom they differed in one important particular. While 
partaking of the same restless, roving, spirit, and fond- 
ness for martial enterprise, they were not averse to 
assimilating with the conquered people instead of 
pushing them on before to seek a home elsewhere. 

They were great imitators of all they saw and they 
greatly improved what they adopted. They did not 
leave behind them anything peculiarly and distinctively 
Norman, nor build up a Norman state after the example 
of their Anglo-Saxon brethren of England, but they 
accepted even the language of the province in which 
they settled, and greatly enriched it by the addition of 
their own, making it a polished and comprehensive 
medium of literary and poetic thought. They introduced 
customs and habits of life which gradually moulded the 
people to a new and better order of things, awakened a 
love for church establishments on a solid and enduring 
basis, and by apt architectural designs wrought their 
sanctuaries into a "thing of beauty and a joy forever." 
They moulded law into precise forms and a substantial 



116 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

science, for it Has been truly said, "If they were born 
soldiers, they were also born lawyers." 

With this enrichment in language, social bearing, love 
for church endowments and architecture, and his natural 
born legal acumen, all improved by his connection with 
the polite Gaul and his Gallo-Latin tongue, the freebooter 
Northman of two centuries ago is transformed into the 
Norman of the eleventh century, and ready to enter on 
his God-appointed mission to enrich his brother Saxon 
across the Channel. In the year 1066 William "the 
Conqueror " laid claim to the English throne on a purely 
legal basis and maintained it, right or wrong, by a posse 
comitatus of 60,000 soldiers, adventurers and retainers, 
and, on entering England proceeds at once, like an old- 
time Democratic administration, to apply the shibboleth, 
" To the victors belong the spoils," though Edward the 
Confessor had in a measure prepared the way by filling 
his own court and offices with Norman favorites. 

Norman nobles and retainers are again put into all 
places of power and emolument in Church and State. 
The whole social, political, and ecclesiastical, goverment 
of William is in great measure changed into Norman 
hands (made necessary by internal troubles) and he 
proceeds to work out " manifest destiny " in behalf of 
those who had hitherto known no permanent conqueror. 
There was no special humiliation in this, for were they 
not brethren of the same- originial stock, and working 
under the divine hand for the accomplishment of the 
same ultimate object ? Two centuries sufficed for the 



ISRAEL IN EUROPE. 117 



schooling in manners, language, literature, jurisprudence,, 
architecture, and love of endowments, which characterise 
our brethren of to-day across the waters. They are not 
over polite yet, what must they have been before this 
schooling ? 

But now Israel (for we shall have her resume her 
maiden name now) has pushed the people to " the utmost 
bounds of the everlasting hills." She has given birth 
to a "multitude of nations" and kings without number- 
She has possessed the " gate of her enemies," carrying 
new life and promise of better things to come wherever 
she has sojourned. She has, by her children, been sifted 
among the nations, yet has gathered to herself the 
"precious things of heaven, of the dew (fogs ?), and of 
the deep that croucheth beneath, and of the chief things 
of the ancient mountains." She lends but does not 
borrow and, enriched by the fiery trials through which 
she has passed, she has become the best conservator 
of all that is true, noble, valiant and free. She has 
become indeed "an holy nation" in the sense of being 
set apart and consecrated to the accomplishment of the 
Divine purpose, that purpose being the political mastery 
of the old world and the destruction of Imperialism and 
the Papacy. " The highest branch of the high cedar " has 
indeed been " planted in a good soil by great waters, that 
it might bring forth branches and that it might bear 
fruit, that it might be a goodly vine" (Eze. 17-8, 22). 

But is this the end of Israel ? Are the promises all 
fulfilled save those pertaining to the punishment and 



118 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

destruction of those old-time enemies of the church — 
Imperialism and the Papacy ? By no means. In the 
first chapter on " Signs of the Times " we have shown 
how political Israel has already indicated her purpose to 
complete the circuit of the old world and occupy again 
at no distant day the initial point of her journeyings — 
the objective point of the divine purpose, so far as the 
old world is concerned. Is that all ? Not by any 
means. Her career is in one sense but just begun. 
David's throne must be established. 

But David has been "a man of blood, 1 ' and cannot be 
allowed to build the temple of God. The commission is 
therefore committed to his son Solomon, whose reign 
and kingdom have in all ages been taken as the type 
of Christ's kingdom on earth. David may gather the 
materials in rich abundance, but Solomon alone is fitted 
to build the temple of the living God, who accepts it at 
his hands by the presence of the Heavenly Shekina. Even 
so in this ultimate temple of the ages, " built by work- 
manship divine," of heaven-born material, no bloody 
hands may control the work. Israel may provide the 
baser material, and may purchase at a goodly price the 
land whereon the temple shall be built, but she shall 
have no hand in its construction. Yet out of her shall 
come the gold of human character, tried in the fire until 
it reflects the image of the Heavenly Architect and 
Builder, and fitted to be the chief adornment of this 
living Christian temple, each human block of which may 
have within his consecrated and sanctified heart the 



ISRAEL IN THE NEW WORLD. 119 

living presence of the Heavenly Sliekina ; while the 
larger, aggregate, temple of. the Theocracy shall be so 
governed and controlled, that in all the untold ages of 
the future it shall not cease to fill the earth with 
blessing. " For the law shall go forth from Mount Zion, 
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." To the 
erection of this temple w T e will give our attention in the 
next chapter. 



CHAPTER V. 

SPIRITUAL ISRAEL PLACED IN THE NEW WORLD; 

THE TENDER TWIG PLANTED UPON AN 

HIGH MOUNTAIN. 

" At that time shall a present be brought unto the Lord of Hosts 
of a people dragged away and peeled, and from a people terrible from 
their beginning onward ; a nation meted out and trodden down 
whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the 
Lord of Hosts, the Mount Zion." 

" All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, 
when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, — see ye : and when 
the trumpet is blown, hear ye" (Isa. 18-7, 3: also Zach. 9-16, 17). 

"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the 
former sha^ not be remembered, nor come into mind " (Isa. 65-17). 

"For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make 
shall remain before me, so shall your seed and your name remain: 



120 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

and it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and 
from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship be- 
fore me, saifch the Lord " (Isa. 66-22, 23 : see also 51-16 : 43-18 
to 21). 

" And I saw a new heavens and a new earth ; for the first heaven 
and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more 
sea" (Eev. 21-1). 

We have come now to a very critical point in Israel' & 
history, and we desire to make future developments so 
plain that no one who desires to know the truth can 
stumble or make a mistake. One of the most difficult 
things in connection with this subject is to realise that 
one is passing through the actual developments of 
prophecy, so prone are we to look for the marvellous. 
"As for this fellow we know whence he is: but when 
Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is," said the 
astute Pharisees. Those who passed through the stu- 
pendous events of the French Revolution of 1793-4 
could not realise their greatness, but left it to those who 
should come after them to measure their significance. 
It is of the utmost importance to us to grasp if possible 
the import of the mighty, yet quiet, events through 
which, as a people, we have been and are now passing. 

Hitherto we have followed Israel's career by histori- 
cal and monumental evidence, yet only suggestively lest 
we trespass our bounds. We have given authorities for 
various statements, which can be consulted for a deeper 
study of the subject if desired. We have seen* how com- 
pletely the facts of the case have fitted the prophetic 



ISEAEL IX THE NEW WORLD. 121 

record. But the most wonderful part of all is yet to 
come, and to this we ask your careful and serious at- 
tention, because it will be found so completely at vari- 
ance with all your preconceived ideas and opinions. 
But if the conditions of the record are filled, you can- 
not honestly refuse your approval and acceptance of the 
truths thus opened to you, and to God and your own 
conscience you are answerable for your conclusions. 

To make the case plainer we shall first name the con- 
ditions of scripture necessary to be complied with and 
then proceed to state the historical facts. The conditions 
referred to are these : the "remnant" shall be delivered, 

(a) "At that time,"— "in that day?— "In the latter 
days ye shall consider it" (Jer. 30-24), — in the 
"Consummation of the age" (Matt. 13-39). 

(6) "A present to the Lord of Hosts." — a free will 
offering ; " Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by 
flight" (Isa. 52-12). 

(c) " Of a people dragged away and peeled" hitherto 
and now afflicted : — " They shall come with weeping 
and with supplications will I gather them" (Jer. 
31-9). 

(d) They must come out for religious convictions : — 
" Depart ye, depart ye. touch no unclean thing ; be 
ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord " (Isa. 
52-11). 

(e) They come out because of trials put upon them by 
their brethren : — " As for my flock they eat that 



122 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

which ye have trodden with your feet, and they 
drink that which ye have fouled with your feet" 
(Eze. 34-19). 

(/) A small portion of people from a nation: — "The 
stone of Israel" (Gen. 49-24) ; "A stone cut out of 
the mountain without hands " (Dan. 2-45) : "a rem- 
nant" (Jer. 31-7; 23-3). 

(g) They shall act at once as a fold and a "shepherd" 
(Gen. 49-24):— "He that scattered Israel will 
gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his 
nock" (Jer. 31-10 ; Isa. 11-10). 

(h) The "present" must be "from a people terrible 
from their beginning onward, whose land the rivers 
have spoiled," as Israel's was in Armenia. 

(/) The" remnant "must come from a North country: — - 
" Behold, I will bring them from the North country, 
and gather them from the coasts of the earth " (Jer. 
31-8 : 23-8). 

(J) It must be a tender twig from "the highest branch 
of the high cedar" : " In the mountain of the height 
of Israel will I plant it " (Eze. 17-23). 

Here are ten peculiar conditions pertaining to Israel 
and to no other person, people or nation, which must be 
observed (and many more of the same character are left 
for the reader to hunt up) in connection with further 
developments in the progress of Israel. She has got to 
the "utmost bounds." into a North country, in "the 
uttermost parts of the earth " from where the prophet 



ISKAEL IN THE NEW WORLD. 123 

wrote, her land is all " coasts " but — a wide ocean con- 
fronts her and she can go no further. Yes she can. 
Faith can leap the waters " dry shod." The " remnant " 
shall be " baptised in the cloud and in the sea ; — but 
we will not anticipate. Hunt the world over and history 
through, and you cannot find any event whatever that 
will fill all these conditions without straining, twisting 
and whittling, to make it fit, save the one event we are 
about to relate. Nor is it at all likely that such an event 
with all .these requirements and a hundred others which 
will be named in their proper place, will ever again 
occur in this world, and he must be dead to all conviction 
who refuses to see the hand of our God in all this most 
remarkable career of Israel. 

There is hardly a necessity to enter into any detailed 
account of the condition of the English Established 
Church previous to the year 1620, with its dead formal- 
ism and rites borrowed from the anti-Christian forms of 
Rome, to find reason for the spirit of non-conformity 
which grew out of a godly desire for a purer and simpler 
form of worship. The history of it is well-known by 
large numbers and open to all. Suffice it to say that the 
spirit of non-conformity was abroad in the land and 
taking a deep hold upon the hearts of many godly people, 
notably in the little town of Scrooby in the north of 
England, on the borders of Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, 
and Lincoln, where was gathered a little congregation 
who held their meetings every Sabbath in one place or 
another for about a year, when they resolved to go over to 



124 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Holland for greater freedom in the exercise of religions 
worship. There had always been non-conformists in the 
English Chnrch from its very foundation, bnt in 1559 
during the reign of Queen Elisabeth, the act of uni- 
formity was passed, imposing severe penalties for con- 
ducting public service in any other manner than that 
prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer ; so that it 
became necessary for those who could not in conscience 
conform to what seemed to many pious people only 
popish superstitions, to worship by themselves "and in 
secret. 

These at Scrooby were among the more pronounced 
of non- conformists, who were ready to leave all the en- 
dearments of home for purely religious causes, so deep 
were their convictions of the sinfulness of remaining 
longer in fellowship with a church so corrupt in form 
and practice as the English Established Church had 
become. In mockery they were termed " Puritans," for 
the name " Non-conformist " was not publicly recognised 
until the act of 1656. 

" Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no un- 
clean thing ; go ye out of the midst of her ; BE YE CliEA^JT, 
that bear the vessels of the lord" (Isa. 5&-11). 

The troubles they experienced in effecting this change 
on account of the rigor of ecclesiastical laws and the 
tyranny of a church and priesthood but little removed 
from the formulas of the Roman, were indeed pitiable to 
behold. Says one account, * " They were robbed of 

1 Palfrey's New England. 



ISRAEL IN THE NEW WORLD. 125 

their worldly goods, betrayed through treachery and 
sent to prison, families were separated by reason of a 
storm which drove the vessel to sea, on which part of 
their company had embarked with all the goods left to 
them ; and thus, deprived of their homes which they 
had sold and having none other to which they could im- 
mediately go, they were indeed in a pitiable plight most 
affecting to behold." 

"For thus saith the Iiord : behold. I will bring them from 
the north country, and gather them from the uttermost part 
of the earth, a great company shall they return hither : they 
shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead 
them: and they shall walk: by rivers of "waters in a straight 
way wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to 
Israel and Ephraim is my first born" (Jer. 38-8, 9). 

After many mishaps and much hardship they arrived 
at last in Amsterdam in 1607-8. Here they remained 
a distinct community, though they found there the 
London congregation which had emigrated some twelve 
or fifteen years before, and the Gainsboro congregation, 
their former neighbors in Nottinghamshire. Xot find- 
ing their residence there pleasant on account of dissen- 
sions in the two above named societies, they determined 
to remove to Leyden, some forty miles distant. All 
these troubles were however but the premonitory signs 
— the quickenings — of a birth from the womb of the 
symbolic "mountain" to be accomplished later on in 
quietness and peace at Delft Haven : — 

"For ye shall not go out with haste ; nor go by flight for the 
Lord will go before you. and the Ciod of Israel shall be your 
rearward " (Isa. 52-13). 



126 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Twelve long years of tedious residence in Leyden were 
fully sufficient to make them devoutly tired of the indo- 
lent security of their "little sanctuary," and in 1620 a 
small company, having determined to embark for the 
New World, gathered with their friends to hold their 
last religious service together, " pouring out prayers to 
the Lord with great fervency mixed with abundance of 
tears." When they were just ready to leave, the breth- 
ren who were to remain behind gathered them at the 
pastor's house, "where w r e refreshed ourselves, after 
tears, with singing of psalms, making joyful melody in 
our heart as well as with our voice." After this they 
accompanied the " Pilgrims " to Delft-Haven, fourteen 
miles distant, where they were to embark ; when, with 
tears, prayers and much sorrow at parting, " we lifted 
up our hands to each other and our hearts for each 
other to the Lord our God, we departed," some ninety 
persons in all, on board the Speedwell for Southampton, 
July 22, 1620. 

There they were joined by the Mayflower and on the 
5th of August they were ready to sail with one hundred 
and twenty persons on the two vessels, the first of sixty 
tons, and the last of one hundred and eighty tons bur- 
den. 1 After getting to sea the Speedwell proved leaky and 

1 It is worthy of note as at least a remarkable coincidence that 
this " remnant" coming out as "the shepherd, the stone of Israel," 
should consist of just one hundred and twenty, or twelve each for 
the ten seceding tribes of Israel. This connects it at once with 
the twelve disciples chosen from the one tribe of Judah for the 



ISRAEL IN THE NEW WORLD. 127 

both vessels put back, when some concluded to remain 
behind, so that when the Mayflower at last sailed, Sept. 
6, there were one hundred and two passengers on board, 
men, women, and children. They were at last out on 
the bosom of the broad ocean, but whither were they 
bound ? Where else can they go but to " the place of 
the Lord of Hosts, the Mount Zion " of the ages to 
come, as saith the prophet Nathan : — 

"lloreover I will appoint A PI*ACE for my people Israel, 
and will plant them, that tliey may dwell in a PALACE OF 
THEIR OWX, AX1> MOVE XO MORE: neither shall the 
children of wickedness afflict them any more as before time " 
(2 Sam. 7-10). 

"For. behold. I create new heavens and a new earth : and 
the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind" (Isa. 
65-17). "For as the new heavens and the new earth which I 
will make shall remain before me. so shall jour name and 
your seed remain : and it shall come to pass that from one new 
moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all 
flesh come to worship before me. saith the Lord of Hosts" (Isa. 
66-22, 23: 51-16: 43-lSto21). 

Where else can they go but to the New World, pre- 
pared of God in ages past for his people and his king- 
dom when in his good providence it should please him 
to bring them thither ? We will now leave our pilgrims 
on shipboard on the bosom of the broad ocean while we 

Prince of the house of David. It matters not that eighteen re- 
mained when they were obliged to put back and abandon one 
vessel, no more than the defection of Judas destroyed the unity 
of the body of the disciples. It only serves to make the cases 
more coincident and remarkable, since both losses were made 
good afterwards. 



128 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

consider this subject of the New World for which they 
are heading. 

I am fully aware that I am treading on what may be 
termed by some timid souls " dangerous ground." But 
truth is never dangerous ground to stand upon ; and if 
old, delusive, fossil, rocks, even though they be com- 
ponent parts of ideal new worlds such as have been 
cherished from time immemorial, have become honey- 
combed by the disintegrating elements of time, research 
and common sense, it is high time that some sharp blows 
from the " hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces " 
should cause them to crumble and go down. 

Let us look calmly and without prejudice at these 
passages we have quoted, without asking what is the 
orthodox or received view respecting them, or what 
authorities sustain the old notions that have so long pre- 
vailed, but let us ask what is the truth and what is a 
plain, common sense interpretation of these strange pas- 
sages. If the truth is reached on this basis, be true to 
God and to yourself by acting on your convictions. The 
quotations from Isaiah are certainly plain enough it 
would seem, without symbolism or circumlocution of any 
kind. A plain statement is made that God will create new 
heavens and a new earth with its festivals and new moons 
— by which the beginning of the festivals was determined 
— and Sabbaths, all pertaining to present life and religious 
enjoyment, which one would hardly suppose necessary if 
we are to be "caught up and changed in the twinkling of 
an eye " and the world given to devouring flame. 



ISKAEL IN THE NEW WORLD. 129 

But then says one. John declares there is to be a 
" new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness." If there is to be indeed a new earth — a new 
creation — it can only be, according to the plain word of 
scripture, " when the elements shall be dissolved with 
fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein 
shall be burned up."' But that cannot be (as we shall 
conclusively show in the final chapter) until the need of 
Sabbaths, festivals and new moons, and all the cumber- 
some machinery of "church work" are no longer needed 
and we shall have entered into an eternal Sabbath of 
rest. 

Better give up, dear reader, looking for the marvellous 
and tragic and look about you and behold the "new 
earth" on which you tread, and the "new heavens," 
more wonderful than any the world has ever seen, your 
very environment. 

The reign of righteousness is in great measure at your 
oavu disposal ; first, in your own heart after the pattern 
of Him who hath called you into the glorious liberty of 
the sons of God ; and. again, in the domain of your own 
social circle ever widening into the circle of the world at 
large. 

Again, the record says, " As the new heavens and the 
new earth shall remain before me, so shall your seed 
and your name remain." Pray where is the necessity of 
seed and names remaining if the earth is purified by fire 
and our whole organism changed to suit the new order 
of things ? Absurd ! There is not the shadow of a claim 



130 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

on which to build such a theory. Why not then ac- 
knowledge at once that there is no light to be gained 
from the old, accepted expositions of these passages, and 
admit that your conception of " the new heavens and the 
new earth " must in some way be defective and needs 
remodeling. 

It is of no use to fall back on the Apocalypse and say, 
as so many have done, that the later revelation explains 
the earlier, and that John says expressly there is to be 
a now heavens and a new earth, for the first heaven and 
the first earth were passed away, and " there ivas no more 
sea." This reminds me of a good Christian, a hard- 
working mechanic who prided himself somewhat on his 
intellectual attainments and general reading and who, in 
making some remarks in the weekly prayer meeting, 
said that he found it difficult to express himself in Eng- 
glish, he would therefore give it to them in Latin, — and 
he did. So, my brother, you would take Eevelations,, 
confessedly a book of symbols from the fourth chapter 
throughout, which you do not understand, to explain 
simple, straightforward, Isaiah who, as a general thing, 
explains himself as we shall presently see. In Isa. 34-4 
are these words : — 



"And all the host of heaven shall he dissolved, and the 
heavens shall he rolled together as a scroll ; and all their host 
shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a 
falling fig from the fig tree ; for my SWORD shall be bathed 
in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon IDUHIEA, and 
upon the people of my curse, to judgment." 



ISRAEL IN THE NEW WORLD. 131 

Does any one for a moment suppose that this strong 
language was literally fulfilled ? or did it mean, simply, 
that judgments should come upon the people and their 
rulers and that their princes and their great men should 
be driven from their seats of power by war, and their 
political heavens ,b dissolved." To this there can be but 
one answer. Political revolutions based upon the ar- 
bitrament of the sword, are meant and nothing more. 
Take this from Isa. 13-10, 11, 14, spoken of Babylon : — 

•' For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall 
not give their light : the snn shall he darkened in his going* 
forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine : and I 
will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their 
iniquity ; and I wilJ cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, 
and I will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible: therefore 
I will shake the heavens, and the EARTH SHALL REMOVE 
OUT OF HER PEACE, in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and 
in the day of his fierce anger." 

Here, again, no one for a moment supposes that there 
was a literal fulfillment of any of these grand natural 
phenomena, but that Babylon should be humbled and 
her name as a nation, yea, the very kingdom itself should 
be removed out of her place ; all which was long ago 
fulfilled. Yet the heavens still remain, albeit a new 
political heavens are above us and our dull eyes fail to 
see their surpassing beauty, and old earth moves on in 
her accustomed course as she is likely to do for untold 
ages to come. So also are we to understand the follow- 
ing passages, especially the last named, all of which we 
will leave the reader to look up and carefully ponder 
(Isa. 24-19, 20, 23: Joel 2-10: Rev. 6-13, 14). 



132 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

In reading the Apocalypse of John the general reader 
needs to bear in mind that it is an Oriental book, written 
for Orientals and, consequently, in a language abounding 
in metaphor and symbols or picture language, in which 
we may say, in a general way, all historical events were 
recorded on the monuments and termed to-day hiero- 
glyphics. These symbols were well understood by educa- 
ted Orientals and every symbol had a definite and well 
established meaning, not understood by us at this day 
whose language is precise and definite and without sym- 
bolism, or even metaphor to any great extent. Yet if I 
say that man is an ass, or is brazen faced, or that boy 
is a calf, any one at once understands that I mean noth- 
ing of the kind as a matter of fact, but that the persons 
addressed have the qualities supposed to belong to the 
animals or object named. The animals themselves may 
be used as the symbols ; the statement in connection 
with them is a metaphor which in plain terms may be 
stated thus — to speak otherwise than one really means. 

Now the Apocalypse is just such a book as described 
in few words, above. It is made up entirely of meta- 
phors and symbols which, continued or woven into a 
complete story, make an allegory. The book is made 
up, moreover, of material furnished in large part by the 
older prophets and a continuation — with amplification 
and minuteness of detail — of the previous visions of 
Daniel in particular, and of Isaiah, Zecheriah, and other 
prophets in general. Thus the figures and symbols em- 
ployed have the same value throughout, being inspired 



ISRAEL IN THE NEW WORLD. 133 

by the same Divine Spirit. This will be made clearer 
and more apparent as we proceed. But the trouble has 
been that general readers, and exegetes as well, have 
dropped the symbolism where there appeared a state- 
ment of facts, and have wholly ignored the value of 
symbols explained in great measure by the older 
prophets. Thus the whole of the last two chapters of 
Revelations have been taken as a veritable description of 
heaven or the purified earth, because of the highly tragic 
statements of the previous (20th) chapter. Let us see. 
John says he " saw a new heaven/' What ! new 
planets, new stars, new sun, new moon ? Must all this 
beautiful planetary system and the constellations be 
destroyed or moved out of their place because this little 
earth of ours is to undergo a change ? or must this earth 
be moved into other regions of space and made to take 
its place in some other galaxy of planets to move on for 
countless ages in its new found path among the stars ? 
That is what is involved if we take his statement of what 
he saw as literal, in its entirety. How much more reason- 
able to believe that this new heaven has the same mean- 
ing here that similar phrases have throughout the 
scriptures where they are used as symbols of great and 
mighty changes in the political world — an entirely new 
political firmament, as compared with that of the Old 
World. It may here be observed that symbolic prophecy 
takes no cognizance anywhere of the destruction of 
matter, only of moral and political changes. It is also 
a rule of correct interpretation that the character of a 



134 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

symbol once obtained as used, is good for the 'whole 
Bible. It is never materially changed and may be relied 
on throughout, otherwise there would be confusion and 
we could know nothing certain. But " order is Heaven's 
first law " and confusion is found nowhere — except in 
modern interpretations of symbolic prophecy. These 
slight changes in symbols had better be named that we 
may not be misunderstood : — The one horn of Daniel's 
beast, which represents the ecclesiastical power that 
should grow up out of the civil or imperial power of 
Rome, becomes two horns in the Apocalypse to fit the 
double character of the Papacy, civil and ecclesiastic. 
The fourth beast "great and terrible" becomes the 
great red dragon of Revelation, but still a beast. The 
four living creatures of Ezekiel's vision — representing 
Israel, as shown in the previous chapter — are reproduced 
in the "four living creatures in the midst of the throne 
and round about the throne " of the Apocalypse. The 
"wheels" are absent because these symbols of the on- 
goings of the Almighty are no longer necessary in the 
new dispensation, since Christ is there represented as 
the moving power and is himself present by " a Lamb as 
it had been slain." So it is throughout ; the changes do 
not destroy the value of the symbol, for the horns still 
represent civil or ecclesiastical powers and the "four liv- 
ing creatures " always represent Israel. With this di- 
gression we pass on. 

Having obtained the character and value of the " new 
heavens," let us determine about that " sea " that was to 



ISRAEL IX THE NEW WOULD. 135 

u be no more." The sea was generally regarded by the 
Ancients as the home of monsters of a rapacious and 
destructive character: hence, a beast rising out of the sea 
would indicate in symbolic language a cruel and ra- 
pacious political power growing out of a corrupt and de- 
based social and political condition of the people, which 
should exercise all the instincts of a wild animal. Such 
was the Roman imperial power which persecuted the 
people of God with such terrible severity at ten differ- 
ent times. This power is represented in Daniel 7-7 by 
the "fourth beast, dreadful and terrible." which "de- 
voured and brake in pieces " the other three beasts or 
national powers, and by the great red dragon of Rev. 
12-3. and the "beast" of chap. 13-1 representing the 
civil power of Papal Rome. All are repacious beasts 
out of the sea and stand as symbols of Rome in her 
political power, whether under Imperialism or the 
Papacy. 

The Abyss, as in the Revised Version, is a different 
original word from that used for sea. but has the same 
general characteristic as a symbol, and means simply bot- 
tomless. There is nothing to necessitate its being used 
with "pit," as in the Common Version, save in chap. 9-1 
where phn?as is used for pit. In all other cases it may 
just as well be attached to sea and doubtless belongs 
there to indicate that when the dragon is cast back into 
the sea from whence he came, it will take him a 
thousand years to rise to the surface again. No wonder it 
was called bottomless ; but to have mentioned the sea 



136 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

would have made the meaning too plain, and " it is the 
glory of God to hide a thing." 

That this interpretation is not strained is apparent 
from chap. 11-7 where the " beast," which we know in 
all cases to have arisen from the sea, is there repre- 
sented as rising out of the abyss — abussos — " bottom- 
less." Now if the sea is a symbol for vast masses of cor- 
rupt people, — smaller bodies being always symbolised 
by rivers, streams, and fountains of waters, — is it not 
evident that when the people become sufficiently intelli- 
gent to deny the " divine right of kings " and are able 
to rule themselves by elected representatives, that there 
is * l no more sea " from which " beasts " and dragons 
can rise ? Of course it is, and that is the meaning, noth- 
ing more nor less. Having discovered the value of two 
factors in the problem, it ought not to be a difficult mat- 
ter to find the third — the " new earth." 

No symbol stands for the earth because there was no 
one in use for a subject that could not by any means 
have entered into the wildest imaginations of men un- 
less by divine impulse. John adopted, therefore, the 
plain language of the older prophets and trusted to the 
symbolisms of the balance of the verse to hide his mean- 
ing, in which he succeeded, we think, most admirably, 
for eighteen centuries have passed and the Christian 
world is still puzzled over the whole subject. We 
can, perhaps, get a more intelligent view of this sub- 
ject if we will only place ourselves, in imagination, 
where John was in the lonely isle of Patmos, and 



ISRAEL IN THE NEW WORLD. 137 

see with his eyes what he saw "in the Spirit," he 
says : — 

"I saw a new h aven and a new earth : and lie first heaven 
and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more 
sea." 

There was revealed to his enraptured vision something 
exceeding the wildest flights of his imagination in a nor- 
mal condition :— for, be it observed, he saw it in an ad- 
vanced condition, since he seems to have seen this after 
the dynasties of the old world had been cast into the 
abyss, and after the thousand years were ended and 
those old-time oppressors of the race Jiad dared to at- 
tempt a revival, in some form, of their lost power. If it 
was at this stage of the world that he got his first view. 
in the very height of Christ's beneficent reign, what 
must have been his joy at seeing this "new world" 
with its boundless wealth of hill and dale, valley and 
field ; with its almost limitless expanse of waters in 
lakes, rivers and streams, emptying into harbors, bays, 
gulfs, and ocean on either hand. What signs of busy life 
in multiform phases in shop, mill and farm, - or flying 
as on wings of wind over prairie and up the mountain 
side. What lovely and beautiful homes in city, town, 
and village, all betokening a happy and prosperous peo- 
ple. Seeing all this in his mini's eye, and the old 
world lost to view, could he say ought else than " I saw 
a new earth, and the first earth was passed away " ? 

But John saw more than this : — He saw what was 
foreign to the highest conception of old-world imperial- 



138 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

ism with its thrones bathed in blood and sunk in cor- 
ruptions of the worst form. He saw a happy and 
multitudinous people electing their own rulers "from 
amongst themselves," as the prophets had declared they 
should "in that day" Millions of happy people he saw 
going to their appointed places to elect these rulers, and 
as quietly and happily returning to their usual avoca- 
tions without strife or revolution, so different from all 
that the old world had ever seen. Could he say aught 
else than " I saw a new heaven " ? He says nothing 
more of all this, for his eyes followed his heart with 
rapt attention to the glorious condition of the Church 
for which he was then suffering banishment ; he saw the 
holy city, new Jerusalem, and was satisfied. 

Awhile back we left our Pilgrims heading for an 
almost unknown country, like their fathers of the olden 
time : 

" They went out not knowing whither they went, and con- 
fessed that they were strangers and PILGRIMS on the earth." 
For they who say such things declare plainly that they seek a 
country. * * * But now they desire a better country, that is 
a heavenly ; wherefore trod is not ashamed to be called their 
God ; for he hath prepared for them a city." 1 

Even one of divine make and workmanship, "a new 
heaven and a new earth," uncorrupted by the curses of 
the old world. To this New World we introduce our 
Pilgrims at Plymouth Eock Nov. 11, 1620, to commence 
the foundations of an empire which shall, by its God- 

1 Heb. 11-14, 16. 



THE GOD-APPOINTED NAME. 139 

appointed institutions, cause ancient, imperial dynasties, 
foreshadowed in Nebuchadnezar's golden image, to 
crumble and fall to the ground. " The stone cut out of 
the mountain without hands " shall yet become itself a 
" great mountain and fill the whole earth." Although 
our " pilgrims " at Southampton were but one hundred 
and two — a "remnant," a "little one," — yet in twenty 
years nearly forty thousand had arrived of those who 
sought for " freedom to worship God." " A great 
company," to be enlarged by an innumerable number 
out of all kindred and languages and people. Here Ave 
leave them, to seek in the next chapter, if possible, a 
God-appointed name for our New World. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE GOD-APPOINTED NAME AMERICA. 

"For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, will both 
search my sheep, and seek them out: I will feed them in a good 
pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be : 
there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they 
feed upon the mountains of Israel" (Eze. 34-11, 14). 

"Thus saith the Lord God: I will also take of the highest 
branch of the high cedar and will set it ; I will crop off from the 



140 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an 
high mountain and eminent" (Eze. 17-22). 

"For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height 
of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, 
all of them in the land, serve me ; there will I accept them, when 
I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the coun- 
tries wherein ye have been scattered" (Eze. 50-40, 41). 

" Every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and 
taketh hold of my covenant ; even them will I bring to my holy 
mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer " * * * 
" He that putteth his trust in me shall posess the land, and shall 
inherit my holy mountain "(Isa. 56-6, 7: 57-13: 40-9: 65-9; Micah 
4-1; Zech. 8-3; Zeph. 3-10, 11). 

The very frequent and peculiar emphasis laid upon 
the phrases "My high mountain," " My holy mountain," 
" In the height of the mountain of Israel," &c, in passages 
where there would seem to be no symbolism intended, 
had for a long time excited my curiosity to know what 
could be meant by these phrases. That they had no 
reference to the mountains of Judea, seems evident from 
the palpable absurdity of the statement in such case. 
Although all Palestine is an exceeding hilly country, 
no real mountains are there if we except the Lebanon 
range in the extreme north, of which Mt. Hermon, the 
highest peak, is only 6,000 feet high. If in the license of 
poetic imagery the hills about Jerusalem were denomi- 
nated mountains, they were never by any license termed, 
as a matter of fact, high mountains, and inasmuch as 
Israel had wholly left the country when these words 
were spoken, they seem more strange still. 



THE GOD- APPOINTED NAME. 141 



If we take the word holy mountain in its scriptural 
sense of consecrated and set apart for a specified re- 
ligious purpose, we can see still further the inappropri- 
ateness of the phrase, since the land had already been 
set apart for such a purpose and failed entirely of ac- 
complishing the results that should have been expected. 
But how much more appropriate they seem when 
spoken with reference to a new kingdom which the God of 
heaven should set up in the latter days in a land whose 
very name means "high mountain " which, as a king- 
dom of people, should so enlarge itself as to fill the 
whole earth — realm or continent where it should be lo- 
cated — in the same sense as the scriptures use the 
phrase " the whole world " of the old Koman Empire. 
Without violence it can also take a broader meaning 
and refer to the time when the principles and institu- 
tions of this God-given land shall so permeate Old World 
social and political life as to bring them into harmony 
with our own, and thus in the larger sense it shall 
fill the whole earth. 

From these considerations there can be but one con- 
clusion, that there was some hidden meaning not yet re- 
vealed which would appear in due time as the explana- 
tion of these very peculiar and emphatic phrases, so 
simple and plain in their straightforwardness. It is with 
great pleasure therefore that we present a copy of an 
article on the origin of the name America which we 
stumbled upon some ten years ago, which led us to see 
the significance, force and beauty of these phrases as 



142 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

originally intended. Surely, God takes strange methods 
to hide his secrets till such time as he sees tit to reveal 
them, not always to the " wise and prudent " but to 
" babes." It affords one more link also in the mighty 
chain of evidences that this Continent has been reserved 
through a period of nearly six thousand years, unknown 
to the civilisations of the Old World, and set apart to a 
holy purpose for the accomplishment of the Divine plan. 

ORIGIN OF THE NAME AMERICA. 

The controversy as to the priority of discovery and 
the honor of bestowing a name on the New World has 
been so long undecided — almost three centuries — that 
any light thrown upon this intricate problem may help its 
true solution, if the truth be discoverable at this late day ; 
and with this hope I offer the following contribution. 

Americ, Amerrique, or Amerique, is the name in 
Nicaragua for the high land or mountain range that lie s 
between Juigalpa and Libertad, in the province of 
Chontales, and reaches on the one side into the country 
of the Carcas Indians, and on the other into that of the 
Eamas Indians. The Bios Mico, Antigua, and Carca, 
that form the Rio Blewfields ; the Rio Grande Matagal- 
pa, and the Rios Rama and Indio, that flow directly into 
the Atlantic ; as well as the Rios Comoapa, May ales, 
Aco}< apa, Ajocuapa, Oyale, and Terpenaguatapa, flowing 
into the Lake of Nicaragua, all have their sources in 
the Americ range. 1 

1 See public documents of the Nicaraguan government; and The 
Naturalist in Nicaragua, by Thos. Belt, 8vo, London, 1873. 



THE GOD- APPOINTED NAME. 143 

The names of places, in the Indian dialects of Central 
America, often terminate in ique or ic, which seems to 
mean "great," "elevated," "prominent," and is always 
applied to dividing ridges, or to elevated, mountainous 
countries, but not to volcanic regions ; for instance, 
Nique and Aglasinique in the Isthmus of Darien 
(Esiados Unidos de Colombia)', Tucarique and Amer- 
rique in Nicaragua ; Amatique, Manabique, Chapar- 
istique, Lepaterique, Llotique, and Ajuterique in Hon- 
duras ; Atenique (Esiados Unidos de Mexico)', Tactic 
and Polochic in Guatemala ; Tepic, Acatic, and Mes- 
quitic in the State of Jalisco, Mexico. The list of Indian 
local or other names, with the termination of ique or ic, 
as Cacique or Cacic, great Chief, might be easily length- 
ened. 

It is now well known, through the learned researches 
of philologibts for the last twenty years, that no denomi- 
nations are more securely established than the names 
of localities — mountains, valleys, lakes and rivers. Even 
the most absolute conquest, unless it totally exterminate 
the aboriginal race inhabiting a country, does not destroy 
entirely the names of localities, or lieujc-diis, as the 
French so well express it. These names may be slightly 
modified, by various spelling, but the primitive sound 
remains. And even where the aboriginal race entirely 
disappears, the names of places are often preserved, at 
least as synonyms ; of which there are many examples 
in Canada, in New England, in the state of New York, 
and elsewhere throughout the Union. 



144 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

The question to be decided is, whether the word 
Americ or Amerrique, designating a part of the terra 
firma discovered by Cristoforo Colombo, on his fourth 
and last voyage to the New World, was known to the 
great navigator, and consequently could have been re- 
peated by him or J)y the companions of his voyage. There 
is no certainty of this ; for the word is not found in the 
very brief account he has left us. But as the origin of 
the word Americ has been until now an enigma, in spite 
of the different interpretations of it that have been given, 
and as Yespuchy had nothing to do with this name, 
entirely unknown to him — the inventor of the word 
Americe or America being a printer and bookseller in a 
small town hidden in the Vosges Mountains — it is well, 
perhaps, to review the facts, and to show where lies the 
greatest probability for a true solution of this word 
America which denominates alone a hemisphere. 

In the Lettera Rarissima of Cristoforo Colombo giv- 
ing an abridged description of his fourth voyage, 
1502-3, he says that after having passed the Cape 
Gracias a Dios, on the Mosquito Coast, he reached the 
Rio Grande Matagalpa, which he called the Disaster 
River, and after remaining anchored there for several 
days, he stopped some time for repairing his ships and 
giving rest to the crews, between the small island of 
La Huerta (the Garden Quiribiri) and the Continent, 
opposite the village of Cariai or Cariay. Cariai is so 
like Carcai, or the dwelling places of the Carcas In- 
dians, who still live in that neighborhood, that it is 






THE GOD- APPOINTED NAME. 145 

possible the variation is caused by an error in reading 
the manuscript letter of Colombo, the c having been 
mistaken for an i. 

The great object of the desires and researches of 
Colombo and his company was the finding of gold 
mines ; and of these the inhabitants of Cariai or Careai 
had much to relate ; they led Colombo to another village 
called Carambaru, whose inhabitants wore golden mirrors 
round their necks. These Indians named several places 
where mines of gold existed, the last named being 
Veraqua, twenty-five leagues distant on the coast. 

Colombo and his company were struck by the number 
of sorcerers (medicine men) among the Cariai or Careai ; 
and the sailors afterwards thought they had been be- 
witched by them, as they suffered from the many 
tempests and mishaps of all sorts they were obliged to 
endure for the rest of the voyage. 

What was the geographical position of Cariai (Careai), 
Carambaru, and Yeragua ? Veragua is known to be in 
the great Bay of Chiriqui (Costa Rica) : Colombo says 
in his narration, "It is the custom in the territory of 
Veragua to bury the chief men with all the gold they 
possess" ; and in these last years gold has been found in 
the tombs of the aborigines of the country. Carambaru 
was at least twenty-five leagues distant from Yeragua 
(Chiriqui), which brings up a little to the north of the 
Rio San Juan and Greytown. Cariai (Careai) must 
have been a little farther north, in the neighborhood of 
the mouth of the Rio Blewfields (of which the Rio Carca 



146 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

is one of the affluents), where are several islands, and 
this accords with the narration of Colombo. The Carcas 
Indians inhabit all this region, and work to-day in the 
gold mines of Santo Domingo and Libertad, on the Rio 
Mico, another affluent of the Blewfields, at the foot of 
the Americ (or Amerrique) range. Carambaru was 
probably near the Rio Rama, and in the country of the 
Ram as Indians. Now the Ramas and Carcas Indians 
have always resisted all attempts at civilisation ; most 
of them, especially the Ramas, are wholly savage, and 
allow no one to penetrate into their country ; they have 
remained the same as they were when Colombo visited 
them in 1502. 

It is well known with what tenacity the Indians attach 
themselves to all their surroundings ; and the Americ 
or Amerrique range forms the highest chain of moun- 
tains in the country of the Carcas and Ramas Indians, 
the average being three thousand feet ; making a dividing 
line between the waters flowing directly into the Atlantic, 
and those that empty into the Lake of Nicaragua. 
According to travelers who have visited certain places 
in the neighborhood of Libertad, Juigalpa, and Acoyapa, 
this mountain range is very conspicuous ; it is seen from 
afar, with its precipitous rocks, great white cliffs, and 
huge, isolated, rocky pinnacles. This ridge divides the 
country into two parts, distinguished by totally different 
climates. To the east continual rains have caused im- 
penetrable forests, and to the west of this dividing line 
the country is arid and unproductive for want of rain. 



THE GOD-APPOINTED NAME. 147 

The Am eric range prevents the passage of all the 
moisture from the Atlantic. The direction is from 
north-northwest to south-southeast, and the last spur of 
the range is on the Atlantic coast a little to the north 
of Greytown ; the ramifications being in the country of 
unapproachable and savage Eamas Indians. 

There is the strongest evidence that this word, denoting 
the range and the rocks of Amerrique, Araerique, or 
Americ, is an indigenous word, the terminal ique or ic 
being common for the names of locality, in the language 
of the Lenca Indians of Central America, a part of 
Mexico ; and that this name has been perpetuated 
without alteration since the discovery of the new world, 
by the complete isolation of the Indians who live in this 
part of the continent, who call their mountains by the 
same word to-day as they did in 1502, when Colombo 
visited them, Amerrique, Amerique, or Americ. These 
mountains are auriferous : at their foot lie the gold 
mines of Libertad and Santo Domingo, and further, the 
gold of the alluvium or the placers is entirely exhausted, 
which can only be explained through a previous washing 
by the Indians themselves ; at present the gold is to be 
found only in the veins of quartz rock. 

Colombo says the Indians named several localities 
rich in gold, but he does not give the names in his very 
curtailed account, contenting himself with citing the 
name of the province of Ciamba ; but it is highly prob- 
able that this name Americ or Amerrique was often pro- 
nounced by the Indians in answer to the pressing de- 



148 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

mancls of the Europeans of the expedition. The eager- 
ness for gold was such among the first navigators that it 
formed their chief preoccupation everywhere ; and it is 
almost certain that to their continual questions as to 
where the gold was found that the Indians wore as or- 
naments, the reply would be, from Americ, this word 
signifying the most elevated and conspicuous part of 
the interior, the upper country, the distinguishing- 
feature of the province of Ciamba. 

It does not follow that Colombo was ignorant of the 
word Americ because he has omitted it in the Lettera 
Earissima, which was addressed by him to his Catholic 
Majesty, the powerful King of Spain. It is evident, 
from his mention of several places where gold was to be 
found, as the Indians had told him without giving their 
names, that he did not tell all he knew ; and it must be 
remembered that the Lettera Rarissima was written 
under the most painful circumstances. He was a prisoner 
in the island of Jamaica, loaded with chains, old, infirm, 
and overwhelmed by suffering and injustice, and not in 
a position to make a very full report of his expedition. 
His account of his fourth voyage is the least clear and 
precise of all his writings, showing in its confused and 
melancholy style the sad condition to which he was re- 
duced, and although the name Americ is not seen there- 
in, the region may have been considered by Colombo 
and his companions as an unexplored El Dorado, occu- 
pying the interior of the country in the province of 
Ciamba, along the coasts of which they had navigated. 



THE GOD-APPOINTED NAME. 149 

We may suppose that Colombo and his companions 
on their return to Europe, when relating their ad- 
ventures, would boast of the rich gold mines they had dis- 
covered through the Indians of Nicaragua, and say they 
lay in the direction of Americ. This would make 
popular the word Americ, as the common designa- 
tion of that part of the Indies in which the richest 
mines of gold in the New World were situated. 

The word Americ. a synonym for this golden country, 
would become known in the sea-ports of the AVest 
Indies and then in those of Europe, and would gradually 
penetrate into the interior of the Continent, so that a 
printer and bookseller in Saint Die. at the foot of the 
Vosges, would have heard the word Americ with- 
out understanding its true meaning as an indigenous 
Indian word, but would become acquainted with it in 
conversations about these famous discoveries, as desig- 
nating a country in the New Indies very rich in mines 
of gold. 

Hylacomylus 1 of Saint Die. ignorant of any printed 
account of these voyages but those of Albericus Yespu- 
cius — published in Latin in 1505. and in German in 
1506 — thought he saw in the Christian name Albericus 
the origin of this, for him. altered and corrupted word. 

1 This teacher, bookseller, and. printer of Saint Die (Yosges) is 
so little known that even his name is not exactly known : it is 
thought to have been Martin Waldseemuller or Wallzemuller, and 
that the Latin name of Hylacomylus was adopted by him in ac- 
cordance with the custom of the time. 



150 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Americ or Amerique, and renewing the fable of the 
monkey and the dolphin, who took the Pirseus for a man, 
called this country by the only name among those of the 
navigators that had reached him, and which resembled 
the word Americ or Amerique. 

In order to accomplish this it was necessary to change 
considerably the Christian name of Yespucius, and from 
Albericus, Alberico, Amerigo, * and Morigo— which are 
the different ways of spelling the first name of Yespuzio, 
or Yespuchy, or Yespucci — he made Americus ! Thus, 
according to my view, it is owing to a grave mis- 
take of Hylacomylus that the aboriginal name of the 
New World, Americ or Amerique, has been Euro- 
peanized and connected with the son of Anastasio Yes- 
puzio. 

Had this mistake occurred in Spain, Portugal, or the 
West Indies, evidently it would have been corrected ; 
for Yespuzio and many of the companions of Colombo 
were still living. But in the little town of Saint Die, 
the name of which was, probably, never known to 
Cristoforo Colombo or Alberico Yespuzio, distant 
from any sea-port, this little pamphlet of the book- 

1 It is important to remark that Hylacomylus knew only the 
names Albericus and Alberico, which renders the creation by him 
of the name America still more improbable, if he had not heard 
the indigenous name Americ. The first name of Vespuzio was 
only spelt Amerigo and Morigo in Spanish documents that re- 
mained unpublished until many years after the death of Hylaco- 
mylus. 



THE GOD-APPOINTED NAME. 151 

seller Hylacomylus * was restricted to a small circle ; and, 
in truth, it is around this limited area that the error was 
propagated and prolonged by the publication of a new 
edition of the pamphlet of Hylacomylus at Strasburg in 
1509, and by the appearance at Basle, in 1522, of the 
first map upon which was seen America Provincia. 

This map, with the name America upon it, reached 
Spain long after the death of Cristoforo Colombo, which 
took place in 1506 ; and the companions of his expedi- 
tion, almost all unlearned men, were, also, either dead 
or gone back to the Indies, and no one was there who 
could correct the mistake, even supposing that the map 
gave the origin of the word. 

The name Americ had been heard, not as that of a 
man, but of a country, of an undetermined portion of 
the terra flrma of the New World, and it was accepted 
without difficulty, no attention being paid to the mistake 
of the printer and bookseller of Saint Die whose pam- 
phlet was, probably, unknown in Spain. 

There can be little doubt that the word Americ was 
not only known, but popularised to a certain extent, in 
the sea-ports of Spain, Portugal, and the Indies, or it 
would not have been thus at once accepted by universal 
consent, without discussion. This is all the more proba- 
ble from the fact that Hylacomylus, beside the marked 
alteration of the first name, Alberico, disregarded the 

1 Entitled, Cosmographise Introductio cum quibusdam Geome- 
triae ac Astronomiae principis ; ad earn Kem necessariis in super 
quatuor Americii Vespucii Navagationes ; p. 52 in quarto, 1507. 



ISRAEL IN THE NEW WORLD. 152 

rule which has always been followed in naming coun- 
tries, by giving the first name instead of the family 
name of his hero; he should have called the New World 
Yespuzia or Vespuchia. 

The Christian name of an ordinary man is never used 
to designate a country, but only that of an emperor 
king, queen, or prince ; thus we say Straits of Magellan, 
Vancouver's Island, Tasmania, Yan Dieman's Land, etc., 
while we have, on the other hand, Louisiana, Carolina, 
Georgia, Maryland, Filipinas, Victoria, etc. There is 
no exception to this rule in the case of Cristoforo Colom- 
bo, for no one has thought of giving the name of Cristo- 
foria to a country, and that of Cristoforo to a town ; 
while at several epochs many names of Colombia, 
Columbia, Columbus, and Colon, have been given. 
Furthermore, in giving to Vespuzio the honor of naming 
the New World, Hylacomylus, using the Christian name 
contrary to all precedent, should have named it Albericia, 
or Amerigia or Amerigonia or Morigia, and not America. 

The only way to explain this name, reached with such 
difficulty, is that Hylacomylus had previously heard 
pronounced the name of Americ or Amerique. Amerigo 
Yespuchy (as the name is written by Cristoforo Colom- 
bo in his letter dated Seville, 5 Feb., 1505), died in 1512, 
long before the publication at Basle of the map in 
Mela cum commentatio Vadiani, without knowing " the 
dangerous glory that was preparing for him at Saint 
Die," as Humboldt expresses it ; he believed until the 
end of his life that the New World was the coast of 



THE GOD-APPOINTED NAME. 153 

Asia, and died as lie had lived, piloto mayor de lndias. 

This belief in the Indies and the nearness to the Eiver 
Ganges of their discoveries, prevented Colombo, his 
contemporaries, and his successors, from giving the 
countries they found a collective name. The idea 
originated with men in the interior of the continent of 
Europe, unacquainted practically, with the navigation of 
those times, so feverish with th^ excitement of voyages ; 
and who, repeating the sayings of the sailors, without 
knowing very well what they were about, applied a name 
already known to those who had returned from the 
Indies, but which was without any geographical position, 
to an entire group of newly discovered lands, hardly then 
recognised as a whole. 

The mistake of the theoretical geographers of Saint 
Die, Strasburg, and Basle, could hardly have been cor- 
rected, unless by Colombo, who was uo longer in this 
world : and then the discoveries of Cortez, Pizarro, and 
others, came to change the direction of ideas as to the 
countries fabulously rich in gold. 

Although Nicaragua was conquered in 1522 by Gil 
Gonzales de Avida, a part of it remained wholly unknown, 
especially the region extending from the Atlantic to 
Lake Nicaragua, in which lies the Amerrique range : and 
-the ignorance of this part of America has continued so 
long, that the Californian emigration, even, has passed 
by it across the Isthmus of Nicaragua without any 
knowledge of or interest in its existence. It may be 
said that the region of country lying between the Carib- 



154 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

bean Sea and the dividing line for the waters that flow 
into Lake Nicaragua is to this day entirely unknown ; 
the Carcas and Ramas Indians, especially the latter, 
oppose any entrance into their country, rejecting even 
the Indians who search for caoutchouc, and who in- 
trepidly pursue their work in countries as yet closed. 

The theory I have presented has some great ad- 
vantages. In the first place, it takes nothing from the 
glory of Colombo, the name of the continent discovered 
by him being an indigenous name which, from designa- 
ting a small and limited country, has been extended to 
include the whole New World, through the mistake of a 
teacher, printer, and bookseller in a little town hidden 
among the Yosges Mountains. 

The accusations of plagiarism from which Alberico 
Yespuzio has suffered are abolished, and there is no 
longer any reason to reproach him with having imposed, 
or having suffered to be imposed, his Christian name on 
a whole continent ; inasmuch as this name was never 
Americ or Amerique, but Alberico or Amerigo. The 
name Amerique, although aboriginal, makes no confusion 
between a part and the whole, because the locality where 
it exists as lieu-dii is too small, obscure and insignificant 
to give rise to any false or double meanings of the 
term. Finally, this name appears to be admirably 
chosen, extending as the Americ range does from the 
center to the extremities of the continent, radiating as 
it were, giving one hand to the North and one to the 
South, looking to the Antilles and to the Pacific, and 



THE GOD-APPOINTED NAZVIE. 155 

being even the central point of the immense chain of 
mountains which extends from the Tierra del Fuego to 
the borders of the Mackenzie River, and forms the 
backbone of the western hemisphere ; in truth, the 
longest range of mountains upon our globe. 

It is well chosen, also, as it probably was heard by the 
great Admiral Colombo on his fourth voyage ; the illus- 
trious discoverer of the New World being the first 
European who heard and pronounced the word Americ 
or Anierrique, although we have no material certainty of 
this. Had the name belonged to a part of either 
extremity of the Continent, it would hardly have been 
so readily accepted ; but it grasped and took the new 
world round the centre, vaguely, merely signifying a 
region very rich in gold mines ; and it was employed 
and accepted without a thought of the pilot Alberico 
Vespuzio ; it was a long time after that discussions 
arose among learned geographers, and that the gross 
mistake of Hylacomylus was imposed upon the world as 
truth. In a word, the word Americ is American. 

Jules Marcou, 

Atlantic Monthly, March, 1875. 



156 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

CHAPTER VII. 

MATERIAL ENDOWMENTS OF THE LAND. 

" Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I 
will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their, own, and 
move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them 
any more as beforetime" (2 Sam. 7-10). 

"And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall 
assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed 
of Judah from the four corners of the earth: but they shall fly upon 
the shoulders l of the Philistines tozvard the vjest" (Isa. 11-12, 14). 

" Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him in unto his 
people : let his hands be sufficient for him " (Deut. 33-7), 

" Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty : they shall behold 
the land that is very far off " (Isa. 33-17). 

Here are some very singular statements especially in 
the first verse. It seems strange that the prophet 
Nathan, in speaking to David of the establishment of 
his throne forever, should speak of a "home of their 
own ' ' i or his people and of moving no more, when they 
were at that very time well settled in the very land 
promised to their fathers, in which they expected to 
remain forever. They were now under David consoli- 
dated into a united and w r ell established kingdom with 
not the slightest sign of the future rupture but three 
centuries distant, which should scatter them into all 
corners of the earth. 

1 Or " ships," as the LXX. render it. 



MATERIAL ENDOWMENTS. 157 

But there was every prospect under the promise just 
then given for the eternal continuance of his house and 
kingdom, of long continued prosperity and happiness — 
and so David himself expected, as witness his seventy- 
second Psalm. Where then was the occasion of speak- 
ing in the future tense of appointing a " place for Israel," 
" a place of their own " from which they should " move 
no more" and should be no more afflicted ? Only one 
answer can be given. 

God saw clearly what would be the inevitable result 
of their idolatrous propensities manifested so early as 
at Sinai ; and that only when by terrible afflictions and 
trials they should be thoroughly cured of idolatry, would 
they be fitted for their future far-off land which they 
could f idly call "their own'' and from which they would 
never move. 

" Behold, the former things are come to pass, and XEW 
THIXQS do I declare : before they spring forth I tell yon of 
them" (Isa.-12-J>). "Behold. I will do a new thing; now it shall 
spring forth; sb all ye not know it ? I will even make a waj 
in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert " (Isa. 43-10). 

" The children of wickedness shall not afflict them 
any more," for "they that afflicted thee shall be far re- 
moved from thee " by reason of a wide ocean on either 
hand that separates spiritual Israel from her old time 
enemies, which also fulfills in a remarkable degree the 
prophecy of Balaam (Num. 23-9). 

" For from the top of the rock I see him, 
And from the hills I hehold him : 
Lo, it is a people that dwell alone, 
And shall not be reckoned among the nations." 



158 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Here also in this " place of their own " where we have 
landed the " pilgrims" of Spiritual Israel, God has "set 
up an ensign " and given us the " Eagle " as an emblem 
of kingly power, with a royal priesthood, and to it a call 
is made by Isaiah : " All ye inhabitants of the world, and 
ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on 
the mountains, see ye ; and when the trumpet is blown, 
hear ye" (18-3 : see also Zech. 9-16, 17). 

Yet the Christian Church has neither seen the ensign 
nor heard the trumpet sound calling the dispersed of 
Israel and Judah, and the downtrodden of every land to 
this " Land of the free, and the home of the brave." 

But Judah is listening to the sound and obeying the 
call, if we may judge by the "signs of the times." On 
a Fourth of July celebration some years ago in San 
Francisco, the following sentences were uttered by two 
of the leading Eabbins as reported in the Alta Califor- 
nia : "Of all other people, the Jews have reason to be 
thankful for America. To them God has created it a 
New World" * * * "Wo can only compare this 
Republic to the old commonwealth of Israel delivered 
from Egypt." * * * To the American Jew the 
history of America is the history of his redemption from 
a second Egypt, and his finding a second land of promise 
where he can resume the songs of Zion." Multitudes of 
passages of the same tenor, uttered from time to time, 
could be given, all tending to show that Judah at least 
is beginning to realise the marvelous manner in which 
God is bringing to a close her long, long years of bondage 



MATERIAL ENDOWMENTS. 159 

and trouble, and this answers to the third peculiarity of 

our heading, " Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring 

him in unto his people." God grant the time may soon 
come when 

"They shall look on Him whom they have piereed, and 
shall mourn for him as one mourn eth for an only son" (Zeeh. 
12-10). 

It would seem also that even their oppressors are 
urging them on with all speed by persecution, oppressive 
taxation, and other disabilities, before their own day of 
wrath comes. "The unprecedented success which has 
accompanied the efforts of the Russian Immigrant Aid 
Association for the last few months, has induced its 
managers to conclude a contract with a leading steam- 
ship company to transport five thousand Jews to this 
country as fast as their facilities will allow ; the expressed 
intention being to drain Russia completely of its Jewish 
element and to transplant it to these shores. The project 
is greatly simplified by the favor with which the Imperial 
Government contemplates the movement. 1 

Simultaneous with this decision comes the news that 
the Alliance Israelite Universelle, of Paris, has entered 
into a similar contract with another steamship line for 
the transportation of other thousands from that country. 2 



1 Russia contains all told about 3,000,000 Jews, nearly half the 
whole estimated number of them in the world, and it is expected 
that all will be in this country within the next five years. I have 
no means of knowing the number in France. 

2 New York Truth. 



160 . THE COMING KINGDOM. 



"Who are these that fly as a cloud and as doves to their 
windows ? Surely the isles shall wait for me and the ships of 
TARSHISH flrst, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and 
their gold with them, for the name of the Lord thy €Jod, and for 
the Holy One of Israel, because He hath glorified thee" (Isa. 
60-S,9). 

This whole chapter is most wonderful in its minute 
details of marvelous material blessings that are to be 
the portion of spiritual Israel in this " place of their 
own." We. cannot accept the commonly received idea 
that all this refers to Christ's kingdom, for we are in 
the full enjoyment of these material gifts and Christ's 
temporal kingdom is not yet set up and will not be until 
God, working through and by means of the people, 
shall give it to him, since it must be, to be acceptable to 
Christ, a purely voluntary offering. Neither can it re- 
fer, as held by some, to the return of the Jews to Pales- 
tine, for the reason that Judah has lost all chance of 
being gathered again as a nation, bv reason of Christ's 
denunciation as recorded in Matt. 23-38 : 9 X-43; read 
also Amos 9-8 ; Isa. 65-15 ; Jer. 7-14, 16 : 19-11 : 23- 
39, 40. Nor for the further reason that Palestine can 
in nowise answer the conditions of the record in any 
particular, save by a mighty miracle and an entire re- 
construction above and below ground, which is not at 
all likely to occur while the " New World " is already 
made to our hand, and the process of returning already 
begun long ago. Wake up, my brother, and behold 
what mighty things the Lord hath wrought in the earth t 
(Job 9-10 ; Dan. 4-3). 



MATEKIAL ENDOWMENTS. 161 



Nor for the additional reason that if the promise is 
not already fulfilled, there are insurmountable difficul- 
ties in the way of any future fulfillment, for who that 
has studied human history believes that Latin Spain, 
born in paganism and nurtured by the " Mother of Har- 
lots," will ever rise again to commercial supremacy so 
as to be the first to carry the " dispersed among the 
Gentiles " to trodden down Jerusalem ? Who will tell 
us what "isles shall wait" for them? Reverse the 
scene to the AVestern Continent, and how complete the 
picture in the first voyages of Columbus. 

Marvelous indeed seems this vision of the prophet 
in connection with the historic story that Roman Catho- 
lic Spain — the sworn enemy of: both spiritual and car- 
nal Israel in all ages, and who showed her hatred of 
Judah by expelling the Jews from all her territory in 
1192, the very year of the discDvery of America by Co- 
lumbus—should be the first to discover Israel's and 
Judah' s future home, but would not be permitted to es- 
tablish herself in it, nor enjoy the fruit of her dis- 
covery : — 

" They that swallowed thee up shall be FAR AWAY : but 
the sons 1 of them that afflicted thee shall come bending 
unto thee" (Isa. fr-14). 

Not only does the record state that old time enemies 
should be far removed, but that Israel's future home 
should be vast in extent, and far in excess of anything 

1 In Mexico ? 



162 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

any single country of the Old World could show, even 
a " NewWorld " created or kept expressly for her. How 
insignificant is Palestine beside it, even in its palmiest 
days. Why, the whole country of David's kingdom 
could be put inside the San Joaquin valley of Califor- 
nia, with thousands of square miles for playroom on the 
borders. Hear what David says of the "new home" 
as described in the seventy-second Psalm, which has 
always been held to describe Christ's kingdom — as it 
will be ere long : — 

" He sball have dominion also from sea to sea. 

And from the river to the ends of the earth. 

They that dwell in the wilderness 1 shall bow before him, 

And his enemies shall lick the dust. 

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents, 

The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts." 

" It is not generally known, even in cultivated circles, 
that the amount of arable soil in America is greater 
than in Europe, Asia and Africa put together, and can 
therefore sustain more lives. I speak from a scientific 
basis, and I will show you what that basis is : Our con- 
tinent is narrow and therefore the winds of the ocean 
water it well. The mountain chains on the east side of 
the American continent are low ; on the east side of the 
Old World they are high. From this it results that the 
trade winds, laden with the wetness of the sea, are at- 
tracted to our land. The breadth of the Old World and 
its high eastern ranges, cause the rainless interiors of 

1 Aborigines ? 



MATERIAL ENDOWMENTS. 163 

Asia and Africa. Again, America is the land of fertile 
plains ; the Old World of scorched plains. Our plains 
run north and south, and so attract and receive the 
rains. America is higher under the equator, the Old 
World is wide, hence with us a small surface is exposed 
to the scorching sun. The result is that the productive 
soil in the Old World is 10,000,000 square miles, and in 
the New 11,000,000. Thus bursts upon us in all the 
light of scientific truth the fact that America can sus- 
tain a greater population than the Old World, and if she 
can it is unquestionable that some day she will." l 

This was just what the prophets declared should be 
the case : — 

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad: and 
the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the i % ose ; for in the 
wilderness shall "waters break out, and streams in the desert " 
(Isa. 35-1). 

" And I will make them and the places round abont my hill 
a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its 
season; there shall be showers of blessing" (Eze. 34-35). 

The prophet must certainly have had this vast extent 
of territory in mind, and seen its comparative freedom 
from opposing forces, when he stated in substance that 
there was enough to give all who should come, " as well 
the stranger as the children born in the land," a home 
and a chance to live. Hear what Isaiah says (54-2, 3 : 
49-20,21):— 

" Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth 
the curtains of thy habitations ; spare not, lengthen thy cords 
and strengthen thy stakes ; for thou shalt break forth on the 

1 Coal Trade Journal. 



164 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



right hand and on the left ; and thy seed shall inherit the Gen- 
tiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." "The 
children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, 'The 
place is too strait for me : give place that I may dwell.' Then 
shalt thou say in thine heart, 'Who hath begotten me these, 
seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, 
AW JEXIIiE, and wandering to and fro ? and who hath brought 
up these ? Behold, I was left alone ; these, where were they V '* 

But now if we look at Eze. 34-25 we shall see a 
peculiarity worth mentioning, which should distinguish 
this God-given land and that is, it should be free from 
ravenous wild beasts. When we consider that twenty- 
five thousand human lives are lost annually in India 
by serpents and wild beasts — and Asia and Russia are 
greatly troubled by ferocious animals — we may well be 
surprised and thankful that so large a territory as ours 
is so free from such pests to civilisation. 

" And I will make with them— Israel— a covenant of peace, 
and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land ; and they 
shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods " 
(Eze. 34-34). 

" And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither 
shall the beast of the land devour them ; but they shall dwell 
safely, and none shall make them afraid" (Ver. £8: also Isa. 
35-9). 

This is somewhat surprising inasmuch as the record de- 
clares that the land should abound in forests, the peculiar 
home of wild beasts and serpents. All sorts of wood of 
every kind and those peculiar to Old World climes and 
soils, should be found here in abundance, even those 
considered of the highest value and exceeding scarce : — 



MATERIAL ENDOWMENTS, 165 



"I will open rivers on the bare heights and fountains in the 
midst of the valleys. I will plant in the wilderness the eedar. 
the aeaeia tree and the myrtle and the oil tree ; I will set in the 
desert the fir tree, the pine and the box tree together : that they 
may see. and know, and consider, and understand together, that 
the hand of the I<ord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel 
hath CREATED IT" (Isa. 41-18. lO, 20). 

" The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the 
pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the plaee of my 
sanctuary ; and I will make the plaee of my feet glorious "* (Isa. 
•tiO-13). 

But there are two peculiarities seemingly at variance, 
and one of them is always taken as a sure evidence that 
Palestine is meant, and that nothing but the return of 
the Jews to that country will satisfy the record ; and so 
we must needs speak of them. We do not by any means 
state that Palestine will not be occupied again by Israel 
and Judah and the " old wastes" builded, for I think it 
very probable that it will be. But I do deny that the 
scriptures show any good ground for supposing that a 
Jewish state and polity will ever be established in 
Palestine or anywhere else, for reasons already given. 
But so far as virgin soil in connection with a land full of 
wasted cities and depopulated places is concerned, it 
would seem that God anticipated even this and provided 
for it in some way, so that not one jot or tittle should be 
wanting in the New World. Only think of it— old 
deserted cities and broken down fortifications in the 
New World! Yet such is the fact. While we are 
accustomed to speak of our fair land as " virgin soil " in 
the largest and truest sense of the word, we have left to 



166 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

us the record of a former civilisation in the "mound 
cities of the West " — silent cities of the dead whose 
history is but slightly known, and whose inhabitants 
are but recently being traced, but whose monuments 
will continue for ages to challenge the wonder of men. 
In choosing the sites for their cities and fortifications, 
this mysterious race of the mounds were moved by the 
same motives that control peoples of to-day in fixing the 
abodes of men and choosing strategic points. 1 .The 
centers of population are to-day near by the places of the 
" mound builders " who flourished ages ago, and we are 
filling out the scripture record to the letter : 

" The wilderness and the solitary place shall he glad for 
them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" 
(Isa. 35-1). 

"And I will multiply men npon you, all the house of Israel 
even all of it ; and the cities shall he inhabited and the wastes 
shall be builded" (Eze. 36-10, 33). 

" In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is 
fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up 
his ruins, and I will build it as in days of old" (Amos 9-11). 

This last verse has primary reference to the house of 
David as a regnant line which will certainly be estab- 
lished again on a surer and more enduring foundation 
than ever, when Christ takes the offered kingdom not far 
hence. But we pass on to other material endowments 
far surpassing all these, which challenge and override 
all past conceptions in old world history. We will not 
stop to dwell upon the promise of " broad rivers and 

1 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. 1. 



MATERIAL ENDOWMENTS. 167 

streams" which should be a peculiar heritage of the 
new home and singularly wanting in the old — except to 
give a single quotation in its place and to say that these 
happy springs of life and sources of joy certainly speak 
of material blessings of the largest kind, and invite a 
happy people to " sow beside all waters " for ages to 
come — but will pass on to show what God has provided 
for us in this new home of the "remnant," "the stone of 
Israel : " " The chief things of the ancient mountains, 
and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for 
the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof, 
and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush, and 
for the precious things of the fruits of the sun, and for 
the precious things of the growth of the moons " (Deut. 
33-14, 15, 16). 

•• And I will make the place of my feet glorious : for brass I 
will brins gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood 
brass, and for stones iron " (Isa. 60-17). 

•• But there the glorious Lord will be with us in majesty, a 
place of broad rivers and streams ; wherein shall go no galley 
with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby " < Isa. 33-21 (. 

It does not need to be said that our boundless wealth 
of minerals and precious metals makes us the treasure 
house of the world, all the coinage of which was not 
equal to the production of California for twenty-five 
years. From 1870 to 1880 we produced over seven hun- 
dred millions of dollars worth of precious metals, and 
last year the valuation is estimated at seventy- 
five millions of dollars, and we have hardly touched 
the mines as yet. Two hundred thousand square 



168 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

miles of coal fields already discovered, with new deposits 
added every year, tell what ample provision has been 
made for the teeming millions of future generations. 
England, France, Bussia, all the German States, and 
Spain, together, cannot boast of a twelfth as much. 

All this does not begin to tell the story, vast as it is. 
We are fast becoming the granary of the world in pro- 
ductions, as well as its treasure house in precious metals. 
According to official statistics our products amounted in 
1885 to the enormous sum of three and one half thousand 
millions of dollars. The mind almost staggers at such 
enormous wealth as the product of one year, and little of 
our soil is yet touched by the plow. Here are a few of 
the leading products : One thousand seven hundred 
million bushels of corn=$580,000,000 ; four hundred 
and fifty million bushels of wheat=$355,000,000 ; six and 
a half million bales of cotton=$250,000,000. Other 
smaller products bring up the full sum. 

The growth of our national wealth is beyond all pre- 
cedent in the world's history. Other nations in the past 
have grown suddenly rich and mighty, but it has always 
been at the expense of some other nation destroyed, 
whose accumulated wealth of centuries suddenly passed 
into other hands to be in turn an object of cupidity and 
plunder. Not so the wealth of this God-given land — 
this Jerusalem of peace and quiet habitations. We have 
earned it ourselves and robbed nobody. 

In 1880 our national wealth, according to the general 
census of that year, amounted to forty-four thousand 



MATERIAL ENDOWMENTS. 169 

millions of dollars. All this is the growth of a century, 
and the most of it is the outcome of the last twenty 
years, for in 1860 we only estimated our wealth at six- 
teen thousand millions of dollars. In ten years from 
1860 we increased our wealth by eight thousand millions 
of dollars, and in the next ten years we increased it by 
twenty thousand millions. "This enormous national 
wealth exceeds the wealth of Great Britain by two hun- 
dred and seventy-six millions of dollars," and that of 
Russia by at least ten thousand millions of dollars. "Who 
can fully comprehend the fact that two thirds of this 
enormous national wealth was gained by peaceful in- 
dustry in twenty years preceding the last census of 
1880. 

Does it not seem a inarvelously strange story that 
half a world with such wondrous resources could remain 
for more than five thousand years utterly unknown to 
the advanced civilisation of the other half ? How can 
we account for this except on the hypothesis that God 
created it and kept it in store for his spiritual Israel 
until it should become necessary to transplant " the 
tender twig of the topmost branch of the high cedar " 
from the corrupting influences of old world life? in a 
word, that he might introduce his chosen ones — the 
'•finest of the wheat" — to a new heavens and a new 
earth which for four hundred years we have been 
pleased to term, in tacit acknowledgement of the verifi- 
cation of scripture. " The Xew World." How slow and 
dull w~e are to perceive God's wondrous dealings with 



170 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

us. Hitherto expositors have found nothing in scripture 
relating to these mighty events of the ages save an 
obscure passage in the Apocalypse (chap. 12-6, 14) 
relating to the woman fleeing into the wilderness, 1 an 
event that occurred about the time of the Apostles, or 
shortly after, in relation to the Jewish Church. 

" And he shall give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt 
sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the 
ground, and it shall be fat and plenteous ; in THAT DAY 
shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise 
and the young asses that till the ground shall eat salted 
provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and 
with the fan" (Isa. 30-23, 24). 

" And I will bring them out from the peoples, and 
gather them from the countries, and will bring them 
into their own land ( ' a place of their own ' ) ; and I will 
feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the water 
courses, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 
I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the 
mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be : 
there shall they lie down in a good fold, and on fat 
pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel " 
(Eze. 34-13, 14). 

We think we have quoted sufficiently to show the vast 
superiority of this " home of their own " above anything 
offered by Palestine, even in its palmiest days, in extent 
of domain and vastness of resources, to convince any 
candid mind that this land and this alone is the future 

1 Rev. Ethan Smith's "Key to the Revelation." 



THE GOD-GIVEN KINGDOM. 171 

home of spiritual Israel, and the kingdom of the future 
for the Son of David. 

We think by this time our Pilgrims have increased in 
numbers and in wealth enough to desire to cut away 
from leading strings and set up for themselves, and so 
we will pass over intervening time and come to the year 
1776 when the God of Israel proposes to enter a little 
more prominently into the government of the people, 
and for a time take charge of it, and to that we will now 
turn in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE GOD OF HEAVEN SHALL SET UP A KINGDOM. 

"And I heard a voice in HeaveD, saying : — ' Now is come salva- 
tion, and strength and the kingdom of our God, and the power of 
his Christ ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which 
accused thein before our God day and night" (Rev. 12-10). 

"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set 
up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed : and the dominion 
shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and 
consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever" (Dan. 

" "Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? 
Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth 
at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her 



172 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

children. Before she travailed, she brought forth ; before hei pain 
came she was delivered of a man child " (Isa. 66-8, 7). 

One hundred and fifty years of Colonial growth " in 
good soil by great waters" have indeed made our 
"tender twig" a "goodly vine," but they have also 
brought it to the time when stays and props are no 
longer needed, and to the time when — to change the 
figure — the furnace fires of oppression and wrong shall 
consume as tow, the cords which have bound Israel to 
the mother country, and to a still better time when by a 
strange and peculiar birth, he shall enter into a new life 
for his mission of regeneration among the nations. 

" Kings have been his fathers and Queens his nursing 
mothers," • but having attained his majority he no longer 
needs their fostering care and desires to set up for him- 
self. There is prepared for him however a new and 
strange political birth, " stranger than fiction," stranger 
than any birth the world ever saw before, whose after- 
pangs shall shake the world and dispel the darkness, 
oppression and gloom which have hung for so many ages 
like a funereal pall over the earth : — a birth which shall 
be the ushering in of the morn of a better day — the 
dawning of the new dispensation — only to be exceeded 
by the full morning glory of that day when " the Sun of 
Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings " at 
" the consummation of the age." 

1 Isa. 49-23. 



THE GOD-GIVEN KINGDOM. 173 



" Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the 
Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness shall cover the 
earth, and gross darkness the peoples: but the IiOrd shall 
arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. The 
little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a 
STRONG XATIOX: I the Lord will hasten it in its time" 
(Isa. 60-1, 22). 

"Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which 
keepeth the truth may enter in" (Isa. 26-2). 

" In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that 
halteth, and I will gather her that was driven far off, and 
her that I have afflicted ; and I will make her that halted 
a remnant, and her that was cast off a strong nation ; 
and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from 
henceforth even forever. Now why dost thou cry out 
aloud ? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor per- 
ished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman 
in travail? be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daugh- 
ter of Zion " (Micah 4-6, 7, 9). 

Were it not for the dullness of our apprehension 
these passages, with a few others added, would make out 
a continuous history of the inception and birth of the 
new kingdom. But " in this mountain" — or by means 
of it — " will the Lord destroy the vail that is spread over 
all nations, " and show the wonderful fulfillment of all 
that is written concerning his people Israel, and hence 
we must explain. 

Chronologically this strange birth of a nation in " one 
day " ought to — and really does, according to the 
calendar by which the time for each is reckoned — 
take place in 1794 on the occasion of the ending of the 



174 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

" mystery of iniquity " • and the proclamation of the 
angels at the sound of the seventh trumpet, saying, " The 
kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our 
Lord and of his Christ " 2 In a succeeding chapter we 
hope to show beyond the peradventure of a doubt that 
the Papacy received its death blow at that date. At 
present we must confine ourselves to the setting up of 
the kingdom of the God of heaven and show by the very 
peculiar circumstances attending the birth of that king- 
dom, that this event is the only true and common sense 
solution of that most perplexing prophecy of Isaiah 
(66-7, 8) respecting a nation to be born in one day. 

It was eminently proper that the ending of the mys- 
tery of iniquity and the birth of the new kingdom — two 
of the most stupendous events of all the ages, inasmuch 
as it is the pivotal point of Bible history — should not 
only be simultaneous, bat should be marked by extra- 
ordinary circumstances. Yet how could they be marked 
by any marvelous events without calling undue attention 
to the events themselves, and so reveal what it was the 
evident intention of God to conceal, as in the case of the 
extraordinary and apparently conflicting circumstances 
connected with the advent and exit of the Son of Man. 
These events of the " kingdom " and the " mystery " are 
quite as extraordinary, as conflicting, as pronounced, as 
difficult and yet as easy of solution as were those, if only 
our minds are open to the truth and we are not as per- 

1 Eev. 10-7. 

2 Eev. 11-15, also 12-10 at the head of this chapter. 



THE GOD-GIVEN KINGDOM. 175 

sistently blind as were the Pharisees who settled the 
whole question of Christ's claims with that most con- 
vincing ( ?) argument, ' ; Look and see, for out of Gallilee 
ariseth no prophet." 

Assuming, for the time being, what I shall hereafter 
prove — that 1794 marked the ending of the "mystery 
of iniquity ,: — how does it happen, as we have declared, 
that the birth of the kingdom in 1776 was synchronous 
with that event and the death blow (not actual death) 
given to the Papacy in 1793-4. Herein lies the truth of 
that saying of " The Preacher," " It is the glory of God 
to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search 
out a matter (Prov. 25-2: Isa. 45-15: Deut. 29-29). We 
will therefore settle this matter if possible as a " condi- 
tion precedent " to further progress. 

In the eleventh chapter of Revelations which marks 
the ending of the second division of the book and a 
partial winding up of the affairs of the Papacy, it is 
declared by two different statements that the duration 
of that " mystery of iniquity " should be 1260 years. 
In chapter 13-5, it is again declared that " power was 
given unto him to make war forty and two montks= 
1260 years. Daniel says, also, of the same power that 
the saints should " be given into his hand until a time, 
times and the dividing of time "=1260 years (chap. 
7-25). 

But since in scripture language a thing begun is well 
nigh done, we are taught that when the death blow is 
given to the Papacy her days are short and she is as 



176 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

good as dead, though she may live some time after — 
as it is plainly declared she should — until the " vials of 
wrath " should be poured out upon her closing days. 
So in the same way the angels speak of " the kingdom " 
as established for all the world when "the mystery " is 
ended and the kingdom of the God of Heaven is set up, 
although it has only just entered on its infant days. 
This is a peculiarity of scripture language and we must 
accept it for all it is worth. 

We come now to a very peculiar distinguishing feature 
of the "little horn" — the Papacy — as described by 
Daniel. " For he shall think to change times and laws " 
(7-25). In perfect accordance with this prophecy we 
find Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582 abolishing the Julian 
Calendar which had been in use for more than sixteen 
hundred years, to the gain, indeed, of ten days over 
actual solar time. Russia alone of all nations holds to 
the old Julian Calendar and her gain in time is twelve 
days to the present. This calendar Gregory XIII. 1 
changed to meet correct solar time, and this is the ac- 
cepted calendar of to-day. By this time the twelve 
hundred and sixty years end as we have assumed, in 
1794. 

But if we are reckoning the same number of years by 
the same calendar for the continuance of the treading of 
" the holy city" under foot, we shall be mistaken in our 

1 It is of no earthly consequence what was the reason of this 
change, right or wrong. God saw fit to have him do it that it 
might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. 



THE GOD-GIVEN KINGDOM. 177 

calculations, for we are dealing with God's people and 
kingdom and must not reckon by the time of the " man 
of sin," however correct it may be as solar time, but we 
must reckon by sacred time, which was lunar time and 
reckoned in round numbers at thirty days to the month 
or 360 days to the year — at a loss of five days. We are 
led to this surmise of the use of sacred time by noticing 
that the time during which the Church is to be in gloom 
and trodden by "the Gentiles" — occupied by unholy 
people — is named as " forty-two months," as distinguished 
from the twelve hundred and sixty days during which the 
" two witnesses " — the Old and New Testaments — were to 
"prophecy in sackcloth." Reckoning then by sacred 
rather than by papal time we have the date 1794, when 
the '* mystery of God" was finished, reduced by eighteen 
years, which bring us back to 1776. Considering the 
confusion usually attending the computation of sacred 
time and chronological data, this is very remarkable. If 
we could find out the precise time of Daniel's writing 
we should find, very probably, that his . twenty-three 
hundred days ended at the same time as above noted. 
Other remarkable circumstances which we embody in 
an appendix, confirm us in our conviction that 1776 
marks the close of the 1,260 years of gloom for Israel. x 
But why this setting back of the date of the birth of 
the " man-child" from 1794 to 1776 if the time of the 
ending of the "mystery of God" and the setting up of 
"the kingdom" are synchronous events, as would appear 

1 See appendix A. 



178 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

from Kev. 11-15 and 10-7 ? We have already given 
one reason, but the real scriptural reason is that the 
birth of the man-child might correspond to the prbphetic 
record of Isaiah, as follows : — 

"A voice of noise from THE CITY, a voice from the 
TEMPLE, a voice of the L-orcl that render eth RECOMPEXSE 
TO HIS ENEMIES ; BEFORE she travailed, she brought 
forth ; BEFORE her pains came, she was delivered of a 
man-child." 

The time has come that the cup of indignation should 
be drunk to its dregs by the "mother of harlots and 
abomination of the earth." This was accomplished in 
the chief city of the chief kingdom of the " man of sin " 
"which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where 
also our Lord was crucified." " Therefore shall her 
plagues come in one day, death, and mourning and 
famine." " In the cup which she hath filled fill to her 
double." Therefore "the Lord rendereth recompense 
to his enemies"; but the birth of the " man child " — the 
God-appointed kingdom — must be accomplished in peace 
as was the birth of the Son of David eighteen centuries 
before. 

But this event being of world wide significance for 
the ages to come, it is in the highest degree fitting that 
the mighty events of the French Eevolution, which 
affected the Papacy as no other event ever did — events 
which filled to the letter the terrible woes pronounced 
against her for her crimes, second only to her final 
doom — should do double duty and serve as after pangs 



THE GOD-GIVEN KINGDOM. 179 

for the birth of the "man child" eighteen years before, 
for whom the whole course of political nature was 
reversed that it might be a standing memorial to the 
world of his divine paternity. 

Lest some may be doubtful of this application of these 
tremendous revolutionary scenes, it was ordained that 
Zion should have her own immediate after pangs. 
Hence we have the very singular political phenomenon 
of a nation born in one day, July 4th, 1776, 1 and ful- 
filling to the letter the divine record by fighting for seven 
long years to establish her right to live. Surely such a 
birth was never witnessed before, since the universal 
custom for all revolutionary action has heretofore been 
for a people first to establish their right to live — and 
then live. Can anything be clearer than this ? The 
prophecy in no wise refers to nations being born in a 
day, as this passage is so often misquoted and mis- 
applied, reference being made to such cases as the Sand- 
wich Islands and Japan. The conditions are clear cut 
and concise, and any interpretation that does not fill the 
requirements of the prophecy, however ingenious, is a 
failure. Our solution meets all these and is therefore 
the only true one. 

Now it becomes necessary to look a little more closely 
at this youngest of the nations and see if we can divine 

1 It is a remarkable coincidence and one worthy of record, that 
this date is also the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple 
at Jerusalem, and was so commemorated by pious Israelites in 
this country, July 4th, 1776, as we learn from Jewish sources. 



180 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

her character, future position and influence, from the 
scripture record. The first characteristic, then, of this 
fifth kingdom — this "stone of Israel" "cut out of the 
mountain without hands" — is that it is of Divine 
origin : — 

"And in the days of these kings shall the Go d of Heaven set 
np a kingdom which shall never he destroy ed : hut it shall 
hreak in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall 
stand forever. " 

The context of the prophecy shows that "these kings" 
or kingdoms are symbolised by the ten toes of the image, 
pertaining to the fourth kingdom, which should continue 
in their general integrity until the latter day when the 
stone kingdom should smite the image, because the 
image was smitten on its feet (ver. 34) and not on its 
legs, or breast, or head. Also for the further reason that 
Daniel says in another vision (chap. 7), which is a dupli- 
cate in another form of this one, that this fourth king- 
dom in a dual form (which. John makes over into a 
triple form) should continue for twelve hundred and 
sixty years. So that the conclusion is inevitable that 
this fifth divine kingdom of the " stone " is set up at or 
near the close of the career of the ten kingdoms which 
formed the Imperial power of Borne and the Papacy. 

The second characteristic of this fifth kingdom is that 
it is a political and not in any paramount sense, at least 
at present, a spiritual kingdom, for it being proven that 
parts are political necessitates the whole must be political. 
This character is given to it by the interpretation itself 



THE GOD-GITEN KINGDOM. 181 

which says that it would break in pieces all the king- 
doms existing before it. Now as the Koman or fourth 
kingdom brake in pieces all the kingdoms before it by 
the most bloody and devastating wars, it follows that the 
breaking of the fourth kingdom by the stone would be 
by violence and war as before. There is no getting rid 
of this conclusion without violating a plain rule of inter- 
pretation by assigning a different sense to an author's 
words than he himself has given. Hence we conclude 
that the breaking power must be a martial and political 
kingdom, for no earthly kingdom was ever yet broken 
up by spiritual forces, least of all by a Christian, spirit- 
ual, kingdom, the weapons of whose warfare are not 
carnal but spiritual, mighty though they be to the pull- 
ing down of strong holds. 

Again, the political character of this stone kingdom 
is still further shown in the very fact of its being cut 
out of the mountain, which we intimated when we nar- 
rated the historical fact of the sailing of the Pilgrims 
from England to lay the foundations of a new empire 
on the shores of the New World. The commonly received 
exposition of this " stone cut out without hands " is that 
it refers specifically to Christ's kingdom because he is 
called the "chief corner stone," a " stone of stumbling," 
and "rock of offense," etc. In symbolic prophecy a 
mountain always means an eminent nation, a powerful 
kingdom. Babylon, a city of the plain, is called by 
Jeremiah, "a destroying mountain." It is always so 
held by expositors. 



182 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Now in the natural world no one would think of at- 
tributing to a rock cut out of a mountain, a character 
very much different from the mountain out of which it 
was cut. It might be richer rock as in the case of marble, 
or quartz from a vein in the mountain, but it is still rock 
or stone in its general characteristics. Why then change 
the essential character of a part of the same symbol, 
contrary to all sound rule of interpretation as given 
above? If the mountain is a nation or kingdom, a 
portion of that kingdom cut out will partake of the 
same character and have of necessity a political organi- 
sation, for no kingdom ever yet existed without one 
and never will, not even excepting Christ's millennial 
kingdom. 

We are reminded furthermore by a friend at our side, 
if the church of Christ was intended to be represented 
by any symbol in connection with this vision it would 
certainly not have been by a "sione cut out of the 
mountain " but rather by something much more precious T 
as was afterwards done in the Apocalypse in connection 
with the latter-day glory of the Church. There gold is 
taken for no higher use than for walls, houses and pave- 
ment of the streets. 

To represent Nebuchadnezar's kingdom in the image 
by a head of gold, the Grecian kingdom by silver, and 
even the cruel Roman kingdom by iron, would seem to 
be exalting them to a very high point of honor if the 
kingdom of our Christ can find no better symbol to 
represent it than that of a stone. No, no ! His kingdom 



THE GOD-GIVEN KINGDOM. 183 

is represented by something more precious than all these 
together — as we learn from chap. 7-13 — even by " a Son 
of Man " who is declared by the Spirit to be the very 
temple of God, the object of Christ's love and the 
especial abode of the purifying Spirit. 

But this fifth kingdom has still another characteristic 
in that it is represented as antagonistic to all other king- 
doms represented by the image, inasmuch as they were 
broken to pieces by it with great violence, and these 
represent Imperialism in one form or other the world 
over. Hence it follows again as another inevitable 
necessity that the stone kingdom must be republican, 
since all governments must be either republics or mon- 
archies. There may be aristocratic, democratic, repre- 
sentative, and confederate republics : but they all agree 
that there is no right of government except by the ex- 
pressed consent of the governed. There may be abso- 
lute, limited, constitutional, and hereditary monarchies ; 
but they all agree in the doctrine that the right of gov- 
erning does not rest in the consent of the governed. 
These two can never exist harmoniously in juxtaposi- 
tion, because their principles are essentially and origi- 
nally antagonistic. This is shown by the words, " They 
became as the chaff of the summer threshing floor ; and 
the wind carried them away" (ver. 35). 

It is also an undeniable fact that all the various forms 
of monarchy grew out of estrangement from God in 
heathenism or idolatry. Hence it is fair to presume that 
God himself is antagonistic to every form of govern- 



184 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



ment but a theocratic democracy in which God himself 
shall be recognised as the source of all right to govern, 
and his law the basis of all legislation on moral ques- 
tions for the good of the people. This was the character 
of the early Israelitish kingdom of " ancient days," and 
such we may fairly conclude from the record, should be 
the character of the fifth kingdom — the stone of Israel 
of which we are speaking: — 

*' And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their gov- 
ernors shall proceed from the midst of them. And ye shall be 
my people, and I will be your €U>d" ( Jer. 30-21, 22 ).. 

" And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy coun 
sellors as at the beginning : AFTERWARD thou shall be 
called the 'The city of righteousness, the faithful city'" (Isa. 
1-26). 

" And they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the 
tribes of Israel " ( Eze. 48-19 ). 

We have now to consider, further, the influence of 
this fifth kingdom in its relations with the other four 
kingdoms represented in the image. Of this "stone" it 
was said: — 

"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the 
gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of 
the summer threshing floors: and the wind carried them 
away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that 
smote the image became a great mountain and filled the 
whole earth" (Dan. 2-35). 

The explanation says that the kingdom represented by 
the stone not only brake in pieces but " shall consume 
all these kingdoms." This explicit and imperative lan- 
guage here employed has led many expositors to argue 



THE GOD-GIVEN KINGDOM. 185 

with great skill that this fifth or stone kingdom should 
itself do all this work of destruction, and that too by 
one sudden, irresistible and overwhelming blow. Dr. 
Adam Clark, for whose expositions we have generally 
great respect, says, " The falling of the stone upon the 
feet of the image was like the stroke of a stone dis- 
charged violently from a Roman catapult : there was but 
one stroke of the stone upon the feet of the image ; it 
was plainly a swift stroke and therefore a sudden one ; 
there was no protracted effort on its part to break up the 
monarchy ; there was no repetition of the blow by the 
stone, for the image fell the moment its feet felt the 
force of the single disrupting blow." 

Yet this exposition is given in face of the fact that 
the fifth or stone kingdom could in no wise be set up 
until the seventh angel should sound at the end of the 
"time, times and the dividing of time." when only the 
kingdom represented by the toes remained of the four 
mighty monarchies symbolised by the image. Each of 
these kingdoms was in its turn destroyed by the succeed- 
ing one ; the Assyrian or head of gold, by the Medo- 
Persian ; this, by the Macedonian ; and this, by the iron 
kingdom of Borne ; while this last was divided — not 
destroyed — into the kingdom of the feet and ten toes of 
the image. But the vision shows a complete image, 
suddenly struck by the stone, and as suddenly collapsing 
into fragments, ground to chaff and blown away. 

The only way out of the difficulty has been, hitherto, 
to suppose there will be a reunion of the broken empire 



186 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

represented by the feet of iron and clay (and if of a 
part, then why not of the whole image?) for the special 
purpose of being suddenly destroyed by the stone king- 
dom. Shades of the prophets ! what an interpretation ! 
build a man of straw for the special purpose of knocking 
him down. 

In this age of enlightenment when the very air is 
surcharged with a spirit of liberty ; when iconoclastic 
nihilism is stalking over the world on the very edge of 
the abyss ; when the whole creation groaneth together, 
waiting for the adoption : to wit, " the manifestation of 
the sons of God," can any man for a moment suppose 
that these powers will ever again be what they have 
been, the persecuting, hell-deserving minions of the 
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth? But 
if we suppose that which is much more reasonable, that 
the image represents the secular, imperial, idea of gov- 
ernment concentrated and embodied in these kingdoms 
from Daniel's time to the present, as opposed to the 
divine, republican, idea of government represented by the 
"stone" and working in all ages through Israel, we have an 
easy solution of the difficulty, and one that will harmonise 
perfectly with all scripture, as well as with historical 
facts. 

In this view it matters little where these kingdoms are 
located at any particular time, or by what names they 
are called, provided they represent imperialism ; though 
I have no doubt the number ten will be preserved 



THE GOD-GITEN KINGDOM. 187 

throughout to continue the integrity of the image. 1 The 
when must, of course, be in the last days of their full 
glory, coinciding with the " time, times and the dividing 
of time "=1260 years, which we have assumed for the 
time to end in 1794 At the same time we intimated 
that these kingdoms were not to be destroyed at one fell 
stroke for the reason " their lives were prolonged for a 
season and a time" (Dan. 7-12), the same as the co-ex- 
istent Papacy. This corroborates the supposition that 
principles are represented, not things. 

Moreover, we must remember continually that script- 
ure prophecy makes very little use or account of time 
and always assumes that a predicted result, once en- 
tered upon its fulfillment, is spoken of as already ac- 
complished. In fact, the prophets often went even 
further than this and counted that as already finished 
for which the causes only were already at work. Isaiah 
says : — 

"Thy holy cities ARE a wildcnu ?ss, Zipn is a wilderness. 
Jerusalem IS a desolation : our holy and heautitnl house. 



1 As a matter of fact, however, only eight kingdoms are needed 
to fill the requirements of the vision, because Daniel declares (chap. 
7-8, 20, 24) that three of the kingdoms would be plucked up by the 
roots — which was done by Pepin and Charlemagne — to constitute 
the temporal estates of the Church for which Rome would natural- 
ly be the equivalent as the eighth power, as follows: — France, 
Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Austria, Hungary and Russia — and 
Rome as the eighth. Turkey, which occupies the capital of the 
ancient Roman empire of the East, is left out, for she will soon be 
absorbed by the other powers and cease to be. 



188 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



where our fathers praised thee, IS burned with Are ; and 
all our pleasant things are laid waste" (Isa. 64-10, 11). 

"Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because 
they have no knowledge : and their honorable men are 
famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst" (Isa. 
5-13,35). 

These words were spoken of Juclah nearly two hun- 
dred years before the prediction was realised, so certain 
was the prophet of its accomplishment from causes then 
already at work. Even the last words, if spoken of se- 
ceded Israel, were some years before they began to be 
carried away. 

Nor does it matter, on the other hand, in what parti- 
cular form or by how many repetitions the blow is struck, 
provided Israel gives it and proper results are obtained. 
As a historical fact it will be found that the fifth king- 
dom, being in its inception and ultimate power a spirit- 
ual one, can give no blow at all, on account of her isolated 
position and her peculiar political policy; for it is dis- 
tinctly stated of the latter-day kingdom of Israel, " They 
that oppressed thee shall be far removed from thee," 
and that must needs be outside of Europe and Asia, for 
Israel has been oppressed in almost every land under 
the sun. Yet none the less will her influence be found 
to be world wide, to the utter discomfiture of old-time 
monarchies. But of Zion's elder brother, the "moun- 
tain" across the water — who, being " a man of war, 1 ' l could 
not be allowed to build this latter-day temple — God has 
said : — 

UOhron. 28-3:22-8. 



THE GOD-GITEN KINGDOM. 189 



•THOr art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with 
thee will I break in pieces tlie nations, and with thee will 
I destroy kingdoms: and with thee will I break in pieces the 
horse and his rider : and with thee will I break in pieces the 
chariot and his rider "J etc, ( Jer. 51-20, 21). 

Contrast this with the kind of warfare that is to be 
waged by Zion, and we 'may get a very good conception 
of the nature of the kingdom, and the true relation it 
bears to the nations of the world represented by the 
image: — love and mercy to peoples, death to iniquitous 
rulers and wrong doing; martial wars in Europe against 
wrong government, moral warfare on this side against 
wrong doers. 

-And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse: 
and he that sat upon him was called FAITHFUL and TRUE. 
and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And he 
was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood: and his name i* 
called THE WOKl> OF UOD. And out of his 3IOTTH goeth 
a sharp sword, that with it he should SMITE the XATIOXS: 

1 It is a singular fact well worth noting as a precursor of things 
yet to come, that while France, the " chief daughter " of the papacy, 
was made to inflict the severest blows upon the papal church at 
home through the length and breadth of the empire, and Napoleon 
was the appointe I "scourge of God" in the same line at Koine, 
the seat of the beast, and upon all tha kingdoms that formed the 
cohorts of Roman imperialism — it was political Israel, after all, 
that was appointed of God to inflict the final, crushing blow upon 
Napoleon himself when he assumed the Imperial purple and 
lorded it over the people in the very spirit of the Powers which he 
sought to overthrow. Can any one fail to see in all this the hand 
of the mighty God of Jacob working through his beloved Israel 
for the world's good ? 



190 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



and he shall rule them with a rod of iron : and he treadeth 
the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty €rod ,r 
Rev. 10-11. 13, 15). 

We therefore conclude that the kingdom of the God 
of. heaven, the "stone of Israel," the stone kingdom of 
the mountain, must be, to fill all the requirements of 
scripture, a political kingdom with all the habiliments 
of place and power and also a Republic which shall be- 
come in the not distant future a theocratic republic, the 
influence of which shall so permeate old-world society as 
to cause thrones to tottle and the abyssmal theory of 
government with its unholy alliance of church and state 
to become "as the chaff of the summer threshing floor." 
Having established our republican kingdom under the 
special care of the " God of Heaven," we will pass on to 
see what the divine record says of her moral and politi- 
cal characteristics. 



MOEAL AND POLITICAL PEATUEES. 191 

CHAPTER IX. 

AIORAL AND POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF 
THE KINGDOM. 

' Thus saith the Lord God : This shall be the border whereby 
ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel : 
Joseph shall have two portions " (Ezekiel, 47-13). 

"And over against the border of the priests the Levttes shall have 
five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth ; 
and they shall not sell it, neither exchange, nor alienate the first 
fruits of the laud ; for it is holy unto the Lord. * * * And 
they that serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel " 
(Ezekiel, 48-13, 14, 19). 

"And it shall come to pass that ye shall divide the land by lot 
for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn 
among you, which shall beget children among you : and they shall 
be unto you as home-born among the children of Israel. And it 
shall come to pass that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there 
shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord God " (Ezekiel, 
47-22, 23). 

This vision of Ezekiel has greatly puzzled expositors, 
and, failing to find any satisfactory solution, they have 
wisely left its interpretation to future generations, and 
the sequel of fulfillment. Connected as it must be with 
all other prophecies relating to latter-day Israel, we feel 
constrained to offer a solution, so far as it bears directly 
on our subject. 

In the original division of Canaan among the tribes. 



192 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Levi was left without a portion because he was set apart 
for the service of the Temple. But since it was promised 
that latter-day Israel should become a " kingdom of 
priests " at the setting up of the kingdom of the "God 
of Heaven " in the latter day, it follows that Levi is no 
longer recognised as the only legitimate depository of 
the priestly robes and insignia, but that in the re-adjust- 
ment which the vision is evidently intended to illustrate,. 
Levi should be reinstated in his inheritance. 

But this arrangement breaks up the mystic number., 
which can no longer stand in its symbolic relation to 
completeness, fullness, and entirety, because it is dis- 
tinctly stated that "Joseph shall have two portions." 
In other words, Ephraim and Manasseli should still 
retain their portions, notwithstanding the re-instatement 
of Levi ; thus making thirteen divisions to the land, 
which corresponds exactly to the original thirteen States 
of this latter-day kingdom of Israel. 

But there is still another peculiarity which must not 
be overlooked, viz., a portion besides all this is set aside 
"for the priests, the sons of Zadok which have kept my 
charge ; which went not astray when the children of 
Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray." (Eze. 
48-11.) "And they shall not sell it, nor exchange it, 
nor shall the first fruits of the land be alienated : for it 
is holy," — consecrated to a sacred purpose — "unto the 
Lord " (verse 14). Now if there is no established priest- 
hood, since all are priests in the new regime, who cati 
these "priests, the sons of Zadok," be but those who 



MORAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES. 193 

" serve the city out of all the tribes of Israel," and the 
place of their service "the sanctuary in the midst 
thereof" set apart and consecrated to a special purpose 
for the benefit of all the tribes or states ? This denotes 
the character of the priesthood in the latter-day king- 
dom in respect of the spiritual and political branches 
of it. Levi being relegated to the ranks of the people, 
spiritual advisers are recognised in whomsoever God 
calls, while those who serve the city — the nation— shall 
be by fair adjustment out of all the tribes or states. 

The coincident historical fact is found in this piece of 
legislation peculiar to this country. Shortly after the 
organization of the political or civil branch of the gov- 
ernment, the rulers "chosen out of all the tribes of 
Israel," set apart a certain " portion " or district — con- 
taining about sixty square miles — for the special and 
perpetual use of the nation, as the permanent seat of 
government, free and independent of the rest of the 
land, and proceeded to build the national capitol — called 
in the text, " the sanctuary " — in the midst of it. These 
certainly are very remarkable coincidences unless we 
accept them, as far as they go, as a complete fulfillment 
of the divine record. We leave the specific measure- 
ments to the curious in symbolic art. We have no use 
for them, and so will proceed to consider other peculiari- 
ties of Israel's dowry. 

A UNITED PEOPLE UNDER ONE HEAD. 

"Thus saith the Lord, I will take the children of Israel 
from anion;' the heathen whither t-iey he gone, and will 



194 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



gather tliem on every side, and bring thorn into their own 
land: and I will make them one nation upon the mountains 
of Israel : and one king shall be king to them all ; and they 
shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided 
into two kingdoms any more at all " ( Eze. 37-32, 23 ). 

"Then shall the children of Judah and the children of 
Israel be gathered together and appoint themselves one head, 
and they shall come up out of the land ; for great shall be the 
day of Jezreel " ( Hosea 1-11 ) 

These and similar passages are usually held to refer 
to the return from the seventy years captivity at Baby- 
lon or, by a sweeping generalisation, to the spirit- 
ual kingdom of Christ, neither of which seems to 
us to be the true sense here intended, for the reason 
that this great gathering is to be the second one in re- 
spect of Judah and the first one of Israel, unless the 
handful of Israel who returned with Judah from the 
captivity might give the right to reckon that gathering 
as the first one of all the tribes. If the coming together 
to ' appoint themselves ' one head ' refers to the time 
not far distant when the people shall choose Christ for 
their king, we have no objections to the view. But in- 
asmuch as that event is in nearly all cases connected 
with the house of David, or the allusion to it is so plain 
as not to be mistaken, we are inclined to think it refers 
to the grand quaternial gathering of the people for the 
choice of a Chief magistrate. 

A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE UNDER A NEW COVENANT. 

" And it shall come to pass in that day that the. Lord 
will set his hand the second time to recover the remnant 
of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and 



MORAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES. 195 

from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cusli, 1 and 
from Elam, and from Shinar, and from the islands of 
the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, 
and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather to- 
gether the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of 
the earth" (Isa. 11-11, 12). 

"Behold, tlie days come, saith tlie Lord. that I will make a 
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of 
Judah. * * After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my 
law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and 
I will be their God and they shall be my people " ( Jer. 31-31. 
33). 

"And thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth 
of the Lord shall name" ( Isa. «2-2: Hosea 2-10.17 ). 

These passages are often pointed to as evidence that 
the Jews are to be gathered again to Palestine with a 
new lease of national life and a new temple with its 
festivals, new moons, and oblations. But Israel must 
be gathered as well, and where will you put them all so 
as to answer all tlie conditions imposed by the record ? 
What about the new covenant and the new name since 
you are expecting them to go back as Jews ? If on 
the other hand they refer only to the spiritual reign of 
Christ, then there is no need of any gathering at all, for 
one place is as good as another for Christ's reign in the 
heart. But if they refer, as we believe they do, to the 
gathering of both Israel and Judah into this God-given 
land, under a new covenant and with a new name for 



Indo Cush. 



196 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



people, country, government and religion, how appro- 
priate the whole account seems. 



THE PEOPLE SHALL ALL HAVE ONE LANGUAGE. 

" Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of deeper 
speech than thou canst perceive ; of a strange tongue that 
thou canst not understand " ( Isa. 33-1© ). 

" For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that 
they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him 
with one consent " ( Zeph. 3-9 ). 

The gift of tongues was given to the Apostles for the 
multitudes who came up to the Feast of Pentecost at 
Jerusalem, that each and all might hear in their own 
language the wonderful things of God. But whoever 
should join himself to the latter-day people and king- 
dom, would adopt the new language of God's Israel and 
become interwoven with the customs and institutions of 
the land of his adoption. It needs no prophets tongue 
to declare that the English language is, ere long, to be 
the medium of communication among all nations. The 
testimony of our wisest and best men for a generation 
back, as well as the foreshadowing incidents of old- 
world life, point to this certain result in the not very 
distant future. From thirty millions in 1800, the En- 
glish speaking populations of the world are now fully 
one hundred millions, and now that Japan is seeking to 
adopt our alphabet and advocating the adoption of our 
language, we shall soon find the ratio of increase rapidly 
advancing. 



MORAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES. 197 



THE PEOPLE SHALL BE MARRIED TO THE LAND. 

"Thou shalt no more be termed "Forsaken ": neither shall 
thy land he any more termed " Desolate ' : hut thou shalt he 
called Hephzi-bah, and thy land ' Beulah* : for the Lord de- 
lighteth in thee and thy land shall be married ; for as a young 
man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee": 
and as a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy 
Hod rejoice over thee" (Isa. 62-4, 5 ». 

Here is a statement which can in no wise find a fulfill- 
ment save iu an entirely new country and on virgin soil, 
It could not certainly be verified in Palestine, since that 
country is already owned and largely occupied by a peo- 
ple having no particular regard for Jew or Gentile, and 
their rights would have to be respected. The very di- 
minutive area of Palestine precludes the possibility of 
supporting such a vast population as " the whole house 
of Israel even all of it," as well as the seven millions of 
Jews of the house of Judah. Such an idea could only 
obtain under the prevalent belief that the Jews repre- 
sent all of the Hebrew people, which we have already 
shown to be very far from the truth. 

The law of pre-emption is peculiarly an American 
institution which obtains nowhere else in the world to 
any extent that we are aware of. Wittingly or unwit- 
tingly we have followed, strictly, the commands of God 
as already given from Ezekiel 47-22, 23. Certainly it 
was never an institution of ancient Israel, save that the 
land was originally divided by lot among the children 
only and not to strangers, and ever after that was inher- 
ited, with no choice in the matter. But in the broad ex- 



198 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

panse of: the New World, embracing almost every known 
variety of climate, soil, and commercial advantage, what 
a field for choice! What splendid brides, and what a 
dowry I ( Hosea 2-14 to 19 ) . 

IT SHALL BE A LAND OF HOMES. 

"Andtliey shall build houses and inhabit them; and they 
shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof. They shall 
not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and an- 
other eat ; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, 
and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands ' > 
I Isa. 65-S1, 22 : also 63-8, 9 ). 

In this respect the new land of promise is not unlike 
the old, although both are very different in this respect 
from all countries not controlled by Israel. Our Heavenly 
Father would have every man happy in his own home. 
There are no homes and no conception of home under 
any system of religion originating with men. In the 
matter of possession there is no country in the world 
where homestead property is so easily acquired or where 
so large a proportion of the people do in fact own their 
homes as in this country. 

The strength of this American Republic rests very 
largely, under God, in this universal desire to own a 
home; and this desire is serving to mould the people, 
native and foreign, into one homogeneous whole, and 
makes them intensely interested in whatever tends to 
the good of the people, and antagonistic to everything 
pointing to misrule and anarchy. They may be led away 
for a time by specious reasoning and unscrupulous lead- 



MORAL AND POLITICAL PEATUPES. 199 

ers, but there will come division of sentiment and coun- 
sels when dangers threaten the homes of the people. 
Therefore, if capitalists wish to preserve their own in- 
terests and their own homes, let them encourage the 
possession of homes by the artisans, laborers and em- 
ployees under their control, and these alien leaders of 
nihilistic proclivities who never own a home, will shortly 
be left out in the cold to go to work or starve. 

Out of a population in 1880 of fifty millions, nearly four 
millions were farmers who are able to " sit under their 
own vine and fig-tree with none to molest or to make 
them afraid," and one-quarter of our entire national 
wealth, or ten billions one hundred and ninety-seven 
millions of dollars are invested in farm property. In 
England, on the contrary, only two hundred and fifty 
thousand are farmers, of whom only sixty-two thousand 
four hundred can boast of the possession of fifty acres 
and upwards, and that too in a population of thirty -five 
millions. 

In the country towns and villages and even in the 
smaller cities of America, most of the people own their 
own homes, and as soon as aliens enter this magic circle 
they become seized with the idea of owning a home. 
This is as it should be and helps much in the stability 
of government and sosial order. 

WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE SHALL PREVAIL. 

" Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times 
and strength of salvation : the fear of the Lord is his treas- 
ure" (Isa. 33-6). 



2G0 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



"Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall he 
increased" (Dan. 12-4). 

" And all thy children shall he taught of the liord, and great 
shall he the peace of thy children " ( Isa. 54-13 ). 

" For the laud shall he filled with the knowledge of the 
glory of the I^ord as the waters cover the sea" (Isa, 11 -9: 
Hah. 2-14). 

Many other passages occur which hold the same 
thought if not expressed in the same words, all tending 
to show in a very marked degree, as in contrast with all 
past times, the increase of knowledge and general infor- 
mation among all classes, especially in religious instruc- 
tion. It is not at all unreasonable to suppose, from the 
minuteness of details in many places, that the prophets 
had actual visions of large bodies of children and youth 
under instruction in day and Sabbath schools. 

While it is true that the Pilgrims brought with them 
the seeds of our present free-school system and a free 
church — the outgrowth of the Reformation — it is never- 
theless equally true that only in the sturdy soil of New 
England did they first find their proper developement, 
until they have become the peculiar heritage of spiritual 
Israel in all lands. Especially have our schools, both 
secular and religious, become by common consent the 
stability of our times and strength of salvation, or as 
some are pleased to term them, " the bulwarks of Liberty." 

IN " THAT DAY " THE BLIND SHALL SEE AND THE DEAF HEAE. 

"Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be 
turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field 1 shall be 

1 Heb. Carmel, a fruitful field. 



MORAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES. 201 



counted for a forest ? And in that day shall the deaf hear the 
words of the book,i and the eyes of the blind shall see out 
of obscurity and darkness " ( Isa. 29-17. 18 ). 

Although, this, like many another prophecy, might have 
been uttered respecting some local events, yet the phrase 
" that day " widens its import and brings it down to 
these days to find its full significance. Lowth says it 
was " a proverbial saying, expressing any great revolu- 
tion, and when respecting two subjects, an entire recip- 
rocal change." Taken in connection with the next verse 
we may see its full import. The eighteenth verse is 
generally supposed to have been fulfilled by Christ's 
advent and ministrations, according to the prophet's rec- 
ord that he should be " for a light to the Gentiles, to 
open the blind eyes," etc. This was true in fact, but it 
was only an earnest of better things to come. That was 
limited in extent, and the fulfillment of to-day is uni- 
versal in its application. The evident meaning of the 
verse is that the blind should be able even in their 
"'obscurity and darkness," to read the book (a book, any 
writing), and through this to perceive the things of the 
kingdom ; and that the deaf by equally clear methods, 
should be able to hear and understand '-in that day\ 
the gospel of good will to all men. Shall we call it 
simply a coincidence that the first institution for the 
blind was established in 1783, in the " yet a very little 
while " when the Carmel of the Papal states " shall be 
esteemed as a forest" like Lebanon ; and the Lebanon, 

1 A book or writing. — Marg. R.V. 



202 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

or forest of America, be turned into a fruitful field coin- 
cident with the birth of the nation ? Call it what we 
will, and interpret the passage as we may, of one thing 
we may rest assured ; it was delivered to the prophet as 
one of the peculiar legacies of the latter-day kingdom 
of Israel. 

HAPPY CHILDKEN AND YOUTH SHALL ABOUND. 

" Thus saith the I«ord of Hosts : — There shall yet old 
men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every 
man with his staff in his hand for multitude of days. And 
the streets of the city shall be full of hoys and girls playing in 
the streets thereof" ( Zech. 8-4, 5 ). 

"Thy wife shall he as a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts 
of thine house: 
Thy children like olive plants, round about thy table. 
Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children. 
Peace be upon Israel " ( Ps. 138-3, 6 ). 

This subject may appear of little importance to many, 
but we need to be careful lest we call that " common and 
unclean " which God has sanctified to the use of earnest 
seekers of the truth. If He has not thought it beneath 
his notice to introduce it as one of the ' wedding pres- 
ents ' of Zion's typical son, why should we turn away 
from it as insignificant and beneath our notice. It cer- 
tainly distinguishes us from the usage of the old world 
from time immemorial, where titled aristocracy has so 
long held sway, and the common people have had very 
few rights which the privileged few felt bound to respect. 
In no place was this more conspicuous than in the streets 
and thoroughfares of city and town. Those who rode 



MORAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES. 203 

controlled the streets and highways, and pedestrians had 
no rights which the drivers of lordly carriages were ex- 
pected to regard. If one was run over, it was the 
pedestrian who was fined for being in the way ; conse- 
quently great insecurity was felt in traversing the streets. 
Add to this their narrow, crowded, and generally filthy 
condition, and one can readily see why children were 
seldom seen in the streets at play, save perhaps in the 
'market place' in company with their parents. Still less 
frequently were the two sexes seen together beyond the 
days of mere childhood, and as they grew in years, the 
separation was made complete. 

In the new home the usage should be directly the 
reverse of all this, so much so as to constitute a peculiar 
feature which only finds its complete fulfillment in 
happy, free, America. Here the sovereign people hold 
the "right of way" and pedestrians are accorded privi- 
leges above all others, causing a deep feeling of security 
well becoming the "habitations of peace." Add to all 
this our broad highways and sideways and we arrive at 
the result mentioned by the prophet, and are continually 
reminded of his happy thought by the troops of laugh- 
ing boys and girls to be met any day on their way to 
and from school. "Great shall be the peace of thy 
children." 

THE ONE RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL OF THE PEOPLE SHALL BE 

THANKSGIVING. 

" And it shall come to pass tliat every one that is left of all 
the nations whieh eame against Jerusalem shall even go up 



204 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



from year to year to worship the king-, the JLord of Hosts, and 
to keep the Feast of Tabernacles" (Zech. 14-16). 

This, like many another passage from the prophets, is 
to be taken in its spirit rather than in its letter ; for the 
idea in the mind of the prophet is, evidently, that as 
Jerusalem with her temple service was the place to 
which " the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord unto 
the testimonies of Israel" year by year, so latter day 
Israel in her "cities of peace" should assemble to cele- 
brate in song and worship, God's goodness for the 
bounties of the year. A curse is pronounced upon those 
who refuse thus to offer an oblation to the Lord. 

The "Feast of Tabernacles" was the annual Thanks- 
giving of ancient Israel, occurring in October after the 
ingathering of harvest. As with our Puritan fathers in 
a local and restricted sense but now with us become 
national, it was made the occasion for reunion of families 
and for general and hearty, social and religious, rejoicing 
for the bounties of the year. It was to Israel a reminder 
also of their journeying in the wilderness in their exo- 
dus from Egypt, yet it was foretold of latter-day Israel 
that they should no more rejoice in the Lord who 
" brought them out of the land of Egypt," but in the 
Lord "who brought up and who led the seed of the 
house of Israel out of the north country, and from all 
countries whither I had driven them ; and they shall 
dwell in their own land" (Jer. 23-8). 

The prophet calls attention especially to this feast as 
the only one of the three great annual festivals of the 



MORAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES, ' 205 



nation that would be left to God's people in their new 
home, and denounces those who keep it not. 

Passover is no more of any significance to us because 
Christ is our Paschal Lamb, and the commemoration of 
his death is our continual Passover. No more is Pente- 
cost of any worth to us, for ''Christ is become the end 
of the law for righteousness to every oue that believeth."' 
We are "dead to the law through faith" and have no 
need to commemorate the thunders of Sinai. 

Not so shall it be with the "Feast of Harvest/* for 
God's continual and prodigious bounties to Israel call 
for songs of loudest praise. It may be well to bear in 
mind that ours is the only nation on the earth that cele- 
brates such a day after the manner of ancient Israel, 
and the day is not far distant when Judah also will 
celebrate with us this annual Thanksgiving, if events 
connected with recent festivals are indications. 

THE CHINESE SHOULD BE A DISTINGUISHING FEATURE. 

•'Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo. these fromtlie 
north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. 
Sing, O heavens ; and be joyful O earth; and break forth into 
singing O mountains : for the tord bath comforted his people, 
and will have mercy upon his afflicted" ( Isa. 49-12, 13 ). 

Most commentators agree that China is intended by 
the "land of Sinim." Is it not very singular, to say the 
least, that among all the peoples and languages from 
every corner of the world who should of their own free 
choice become participants of the great material bless- 
ings of the latter-day kingdom, China alone should be 



206 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

singled out as worthy of special mention by name ? 
When, however, we rind in strange contrast with these 
free-will emigrants from the "Flowery Land," that the 
Ethiopians are mentioned as coming, not of their own 
free will but in chains, to signify their condition of ser- 
vitude, it would seem that God had taken every pains to 
indicate to us by every possible hint, where to look for 
the land of his special creation as the place of Israel's 
permanent home, as distinguished from every other land 
under the sun ; but here is the contrast : — 

" Thus saith the I*ord, The labor of -Egypt and the merchan- 
dise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come 
over unto thee, and they shall he thine ; they shall go after 
thee; in CHAINS they shall come over: and they shall fall 
down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, say- 
ing, ' Surely iiod is in thee: and there is none else, there is 
no God ' " ( Isa. 45-14 ). 

No comment is necessary on passages so plain as this, 
and so we hasten on to state of the new kingdom : — 

IT SHALL CONTROL THE COMMEECE OF THE WORLD. 

"Then shalt thou see and he lightened, 1 and thine heart 
shall tremble and be enlarged ; because the abundance of the 
sea shall be turned unto thee, the wealth of the nations shall 
come unto thee. Thou shalt also suck the milk of the nations, 
and shalt suck the breast of kings : and thou shalt know 
that I the Iiord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the 
Mighty One of Jacob" (Isa. 60-5, 16). 

"Ye shall eat the wealth of the nations, and to their 
glory shall ye succeed" (Ibid. 61-6). 

The whole of the sixtieth chapter is a panegyric upon 
the wonderful commercial wealth and strength of the 

Ps. 34-5. 



MOKAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES, 207 

new kingdom which could in nowise be spoken of Pales- 
tine, for that laud was never fitted for any but a pastoral 
and agricultural people, and for this reason was espe- 
cially chosen as the home of God's ancient people. But 
how truly may it be spoken of this country with its 
boundless wealth of inland waters and seaboard, opening 
out on either hand to Europe and the Orient, and giving 
every facility for exchange of its limitless resources of 
material wealth. Our exchanges reach to every quarter 
of the globe, and we are even now in successful compe- 
tition with those who have heretofore had no rivals in 
the choicest results of human skill. Our exports for 
1385 reached the large sum of seven hundred and twenty 
millions of dollars and are constantly increasing. 

Kings, queens, and titled nobility, aie not unmindful 
of their interests in providing against the unsettled 
future of the old world, though they may not compre- 
hend the full extent of the coming storm of wrath and 
indignation so near at hand. Some of the best real 
estate in New York city is held by foreign princes. 
Several of the most expensive buildings in Broadway, 
Broad and Wall streets, are owned by the ex-Empress 
Eugenie who derives an annual income of sixty thou- 
sand dollars from them. The Duke of Nassau, one of 
the erstwhile German princes, brought over in 1868 
81,500,000, which he invested in Allen street, which yield 
him twelve per cent, on the capital invested ; the prop- 
erty stands in the name of German lawyers. The Grand 
Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Frederick Francis II.. 



208 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

is the owner of lots and houses in Elm street ; and even 
Queen Victoria owns considerable real estate in Broad- 
way, which stands in the name of an Englishman. The 
king of Sweden owns half a million dollars worth of 
real estate in New York, and the Grand Duke Alexis 
owns a hotel in Broadway. King Bomba, as far back 
as 1852, bought six houses in Greenwich street, held by 
Italians for his son Francis IL Doubtless many more 
have invested since these statistics were gathered some 
years ago. What is invested in other cities of the land, 
in agricultural lands and vast cattle ranges, must be very 
large indeed from what we have heard, but having no 
precise data we cannot say definitely. We think their 
investments are pretty safe, for the promise is : — 

NO FOREIGN ENEMY SHALL ATTACK US. 

"But there the Iiord will be with us in majesty, a place 
of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley 
with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the 
Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our 
king; he will save us. Thy tacklings are loosed; they could 
not strengthen tke foot of their mast, they could not spread 
the sail: then was the prey of a great spoil divided; the 
lame took the prey" (Isa. 33-31 to 33). 

" Thy gates also shall be open continually ; they shall not 
be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the 
wealth of the nations, and their kings led with them" (Isa. 
60-11). 

Here is a very graphic description — which could in 
nowise apply to Palestine — of the difficulties to be en- 
countered in any attempt of an enemy's ships to enter 
our " rivers and streams." Even cripples might capture 



MORAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES. 209 

them, so sure is the prophet of God's protection. In 
this we have an assurance for the peace and security of 
our land from all foreign invasion for the generations 
yet to come. But if we are comparatively free from any 
fear now, what will be our security when Christ takes 
charge of the kingdom in the not distant future. Then, 
we feel assured, the enormous annual expenditure for 
navy and war departments will be put to better account 
for the good of men. 

The only enemies we have to fear are those within our 
own borders, " they of our own household " who, by their 
iniquities and defiance of God's law, are bringing judg- 
ments on the land. They whose trust is fixed in the 
God of Jacob need have no fear, for yet a little while 
and the laud shall be cleansed of its foul blots, and we 
shall enter on a reign of perpetual peace under the 
" u Prince of the house of David.'* 

PERPETUAL PEACE AND PROSPERITY ARE ASSURED. 

"But now will I not be to the remnant of this people as 
in former days, saith the Lor d of Hosts : for the seed shall 
be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit ; and the ground 
shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their 
dew, and I shall cause the REJIXAXT of this people to pos- 
sess all these things "' ( Zech. 8-11, 12 ). 

"And I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of 
many generations.* * They shall IXHERIT THE LAXD FOR- 
EVER; the branch of my planting. And they shall dwell 
therein, even they, and their children and their children's 
children FOREVER: and MY SERVAXT DAVID SHALL 
BE THEIR PRINCE FOREVER" (Isa. 60-15,21 : Eze. 37-25: 
Hosea 3-5). 



210 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Here then we leave this young giant of a hundred 
years until such time as he shall see fit to apparel him- 
self anew for an audience with the King of kings, and 
is ready to enter into covenant relations with the Son of 
the Highest. 

A well-defined and clear-cut outline of the kingdom 
has been presented as noiv existing under God's appoint- 
ment, to which we challenge the attention of every Chris- 
tian reader who is " waiting for the consolation of Israel. 1 ' 
We have shown by fair interpretation of scripture, be- 
yond successful controversy, that the kingdom which the 
God of heaven was to set up is not in the dim and un- 
certain future, but is even now, already, entered upon its 
glorious career, only to be eclipsed beyond all concep- 
tion by the reign of the Son of David, who is made a 
King throughout all generations. 

It may seem strange to many that if this nation was 
the special creation of the God of Heaven, why was not 
His name recognised in the organic law at the very in- 
ception of the Government ! This omission has been 
from the first a matter of great regret with many good 
and wise men. But to our mind it is the very best evi- 
dence of Providential arrangement that such recognition 
should be deferred until the nation, in the fulness of her 
moral and political powers, should be able intelligently 
to make deliberate choice of God, and his Son Jesus 
Christ, as her own rightful rulers in all national life, and 
stand forth on " open confession " to the world as a 
Christian nation. 



MORAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES. 211 

No person is held to be a Christian until he de- 
cides of his own choice to give himself to Christ, 
no matter how religiously he may have been taught 
and trained. For various reasons the nation was not in 
condition to intelligently make such a choice one hun- 
dred years ago, neither is she now able ; but we are 
happy to say she is under "deep conviction," and a few 
years hence she will assuredly give with a will what she 
" forgot " or did not think worth while to do in infancy, 
or to have done for her by her sponsors in convention 
without her deliberate consent. This idea corresponds 
fully with the thoughts Ave have all along expressed, that 
spiritual Israel is yet to do this very act in accordance 
with the prophetic vision of Daniel 7-13, and then, and 
not until then, she will be a Christian nation. 

Let us go back now to the point from which we started. 
1776 — or by Eoman-papal time 1794 — and take up the 
momentous events connected with the death-blow to the 
Papacy and Imperialism, which will be considered in the 
next chapter. 



212 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

CHAPTER X. 

DEATH BLOW TO PAPACY AND IMPERIALISM. 

" But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he 
shall begin to sound, the mystery of God is finished, according to 
the good tidings which he declared to his servants the prophets " 
(Rev. 10-7). 

" And the seventh angel sounded ; and there followed great 
voices in heaven,, and they said, ' The kingdom of the world is be- 
come the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ;' and he shall 
reign forever and ever : " And the nations were wroth, and thy 
wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time 
to give their reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, 
and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great ; and to 
destroy them that destroy the earth' 1 '' (Chap: 11-15, 18 see also Dan. 
7-26). 

" He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity ; he that 
killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the 
patience and faith of the saints " (Chap. 13-10). 

" And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, 1 these 
shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and 
shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire" (Chap. 17-16). 

There is, perhaps, no point in Eevelations that has 
received more attention, and over which there has been 
more controversy than in connection with the beginning 
and ending of the 1260 years of the "man of sin." Ou 
this point hangs all the mystery of the ages, until itself 

1 The ten kingdoms of Imperio-Papal Kome. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE K MAN OF SIN." 213 

Las become a mystery which no man seems able to 
fathom. But the "Lion of the tribe of Judah " pre- 
vailed to open the seven-sealed book, and he is able by 
the Spirit to tell us of the "times and the seasons" of this 
mystery of iniquity. Hitherto this matter seems to 
have been hid for good and wise purposes from the wise 
and prudent, as it is written. " For the wisdom of the 
wise men shall perish, and the understanding of the 
prudent men shall be hid" (Isa, 29-14). 

Now it is generally conceded and nearly every one 
understands that these kingdoms — symbolised by the 
feet and toes of the image in the vision of the king — 
are the ten kingdoms of Imperial Kome which gave her 
" power "" and " her seat" to the Papacy, and continues to 
do so in one form or another until the time of the end 
at the close of the " time, times, and the dividing of 
time "=1260 years (Dan. 7-25: Rev. 12-7, 14 : 13-5). 
Hence it becomes of the utmost importance to us to find 
out if possible when those years ended ; when the power 
of the " man of sin " as a persecuting power, shall be so 
crippled and broken as to be no hindrance to the setting 
up of the kingdom of the God of Heaven, and to the 
progress of the truth. 

Of course, if we could show when the " man of sin " 
commenced his career, it would be an easy matter to 
point out its ending. On this point there is great diver- 
sity of opinion, for nearly all the theories of the time 
of the second advent and of the millennium are based 
upon the supposed time of commencement and conse- 



214 THE COMING KINGDOM,. 

quent ending of the 1260 years. It becomes, then, quite 
necessary to go back to the beginning and trace up, very 
briefly, the inception and birth of the Papacy. 

Notwithstanding the ten successive persecutions which 
swept over the early Christian church — taking in their 
course Christian and Jew alike — the truth, as preached 
by the apostles and converts, prevailed so powerfully 
that in three hundred years pagan Rome was shattered 
by the " earthquake " of Rev. 8-5. Christianity rose 
upon the ruins : heathen temples were converted into 
places of Christian worship. Heathen notabilities, 
courtiers, and the elite of society, became eager follow- 
ers of the Christian faith, apparently as a stepping-stone 
to the courtly favor ; for Constantine had become, out- 
wardly at least, an adherent of the despised Gallilean, 
and the emoluments of office were bestowed upon 
adherents of the new faith ; time 325 A. D. 

But so far removed from primitive simplicity of faith 
and worship had the Christian church become, that the 
heathen found little to humble their pride or cause mate- 
rial change in their, manner of worship on entering the 
church of their adoption. The form of Christian wor- 
ship was there with all its borrowed accumulations from 
the heathen service, but it had lost its power. The 
church was entering into its long night of gloom. 
The saints were being "sealed," and the outer court of 
the temple given over to the Gentiles that they might 
" tread the holy city forty and two months." 

This general decay of the faith, incident to the cessa- 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAX OF SIN." 21o 

tion of persecutions, general prosperity and the Imperial 
favor, as well as to the admission of such vast numbers 
of those who had no genuine convictions and conscious 
experience of the truth of Christianity, led to still far- 
ther departures from the faith, and prepared the way for 
the development and final birth of the " man of sin " — 
"the false prophet,' 1 the "antichrist." 

At what precise time this triple embodied monster — 
Rome Imperial, Rome Papa-civil, Rome Papa-ecclesi- 
astic — may be considered to have started on its infamous 
career, it is impossible for mortal man to state. As early 
as 438 A. D. Theoclosius the Great, emperor, commanded 
" that all nations claiming the protection of His Grace 
should receive the faith as propounded by St. Peter to 
the Romans." ' This would not be bad if the church at 
Rome had not arrogated to itself the sole right in the 
line of succession, to act for St. Peter. But earlier even 
than this Yalentian, emperor, forbade the bishops, 
whether of Gaul or of other provinces, " to depart from 
the received customs of the church without the sanction 
of that venerable man tie pope of the holy city" — Rome. 

The code of Justinian, however, is generally held to 
establish the first historical date for the claims of the 
"Holy father" as the head of the church, A. D. 534. 2 



1 Codex Theodos. 

2 The code was published in 533, and that is the date usually 
given, but the whole code was revised, corrected, emended, and 
finally published in Nov. 534, which should, therefore, be taken as 
the true date. 



216 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



About the year 606 A. D. the Exarchate of Kavenna, as 
the constituted head of Imperial power in the now called 
" Western Empire of Rome," declared the validity of 
the Pope's claim to universal supremacy, and this is the 
basis for historical date number tivo. But not until 
Pepin, king of the Franks and father of Charlemagne, 
drove out the Lombards, subdued the Exarchate of Ra- 
venna himself, and began to give " the beast" " his power, 
and his seat and great authority," did the Pope, Stephen 
III., consider himself firmly seated on his throne. In 
the year 756 A. D. (some say 750) Pepin caused the 
keys of the conquered towns to be placed on the altar 
of St. Peter, " and in this act he laid the foundations 
of the whole temporal power of the Pope." ] 

It will be seen from this short account how slim is the 
prospect of deciding upon the precise time when the 
1260 years of the Papacy commenced. If we are fully 
convinced in our own minds of the proper date to select, 
can we be sure that is the date which the Spirit selected 
as the proper time from which to date the years ? In 
this dilemma the scriptures themselves give us the key 
with which to unlock the secret. In the prediction of 
Daniel concerning the coming of the Messiah are these 
words : 

" From the going- forth of the commandment to build and 
restore Jerusalem, unto Messiah the Prince, shall he seven 
weeks and three score and two weeks," etc. (Dan. 9-25). 

One would think from this that the time of Messiah's 
1 Banke's History of the Popes, vol. 1, page 13. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAN OF SIN."' 217 

coming might have been easily found ; but it was not, 
because four different decrees went forth from different 
rulers, embracing a period of nearly one hundred years ; 
so certain and yet so uncertain are the predictions con- 
cerning important events. God only intended the proph- 
ecy to keep alive the interest, and quicken the hopes of 
his true people as the time drew near, not to satisfy idle 
curiosity. He intended, furthermore, by the uncertainty 
of the time, that his people should thoroughly sift the 
claims of every one claiming to be the Messiah, and 
accept the true man on his merits and not on any popu- 
lar favor or fancied date. Hence the absolute necessity 
of looking at the end of the times predicted for one who 
could fill all the conditions, if we would know when the 
order went forth. 

Just so in this matter of the commencement of the 
Papacy, we shall be obliged to look at the end of the 
time for the character of the events and their conformity 
to prescribed conditions, if we would know of a certainty 
when is the true date for the beginning of the "time, 
times, and the dividing of time "=1260 years. Those 
who ignore the prescribed conditions of scripture must 
expect nothing short of complete failure, however in- 
genious their theories, in their attempts to throw light 
on symbolic prophecy. Order is said to be heaven's 
first law, and nowhere is it more conspicuous than in the 
prophetic record of the scriptures. The confusion lies 
in man, not in God's word. 

The book of Revelations is marked by four general or 



218 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

grand divisions, with minuter divisions within these 
four. The first part concerns the seven churches of 
Asia and takes up the first three chapters. The second 
part gives the opening scenes of the vision proper and 
a general summary of events connected with the career 
of the "man of sin," winding up in the eleventh chapter 
with the conditions incident to his death and judgment 
as a persecuting power. In connection with his pros- 
tration on a " death-bed," the ending of the " mystery of 
iniquity " and the commencement of the reign of right- 
eousness are announced. At the nineteenth verse 
of this chapter a new division (the third) com- 
mences, taking up in detail (after introducing the 
Roman dragon and the Jewish and Christian churches 
in chapter twelve) the career of the Papacy in its three- 
fold form from the beginning, and closes the waters over 
her in chap. 18-21. Chapter twenty of this division 
deals with the Eoman dragon, or Imperialism, and brings 
him to his final doom. In chapter twenty-one — the last 
division — John takes up the glorious condition of the 
church in her new home, but only gives a gorgeous sum- 
mary of her condition, because the details in amplest 
form were already to be found in the older prophets. 

We propose now to give the conditions of chapter 
eleven, which mark the commencement of the closing 
days of the man of sin and his ally, Imperialism, and then 
place by the side of these conditions the historical facts 
and see if we cannot determine to an absolute certainty 
the end of the " mystery of iniquity." Then it is of little 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAN OF SIN." 219 

consequence to us, except as confirmatory evidence, when 
he began his career. Let us premise that these last days 
— this death blow to Kome-papal — does not necessitate 
his immediate dissolution, for many a man is death 
struck and lives some time after ; and of this particular 
" sick man " it was declared : 

"But the judgment shall sit. and they shall take away his 
dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (Dan. 7- 

26.) 

Of the ten kingdoms representing Imperialism it was 
said : 

"They had their dominion taken away: yet their lives 
were prolonged for a season and a time " ( Dan. 7-12 j. 

Now for the conditions : — 

(a) A condition of gloom and depression for the true 
church during forty two months (Eev. 11-2). 

(b) The prophesying of the "two witnesses" — the Old 
and New Testaments — in "sackcloth" for 1260 days 
or years (ver. 3). 

(c) The death of the "witnesses" at the hands of the 
'•man of sin" — '"the beast" (ver. 7). 

(d) Their unburied condition in the Sodom and Egypt 
of the Papal dominions (ver. 9). 

(e) Great rejoicing over their death and sending of 
presents and gifts (ver. 10). 

(/) Their resurrection in a short time, said to be " three 
days and a half" (or years) (ver. 11). 



220 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

(g) They ascend to heaven in a cloud and their enemies 

behold them (ver. 12). 
(h) A great earthquake or political revolution (ver. 13). 
(i) The announcement of the setting up of the kingdom 

of God (ver. 15). 
(J) The judgment of destruction upon the whole crowd, 

and reward to the servants of God (ver. 18). 

Here are ten distinct conditions or events connected 
with the closing days of the Papacy and Imperialism, 
and the setting up of the kingdom of the God of 
Heaven and of His Son Jesus, the Christ, which are 
invariably ignored and treated as separate events with- 
out cohesion or connection of any kind ; whereas, they 
are indissolubly joined together and find their solution 
in one event — the death-blow to Rome's spiritual as- 
sumptions—at a definite and well established period of 
time, the end of the 1260 years. Now if we take the 
first of our historical elates (534 A. D.) as a supposable 
time (for we know nothing about it as yet and so will 
take the several dates in order) for the beginning of that 
power and add the 1260 years, we are landed right in 
the midst of that mightiest revolution that ever shook 
this earth — the French Revolution of 1793-4. But we 
will not anticipate, and will take up our " conditions " in 
order. 

I suppose no one will deny for a moment that the 
church of true believers was in a state of gloom and de- 
pression throughout the world from 534 A. D. and on- 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAX OF SIN." 221 

ward. With the service of the churches uttered almost 
universally in an unknown tongue — the Latin — how 
could it be otherwise ? With the Lamp of Life hidden 
under a bushel, what else could ensue but darkness? 
Great stress has been laid on the Reformation in Ger- 
many under Luther, but very few writers agree as to its 
real effects on the church of Koine or its position in proph- 
ecy. We can find no allusion to it, and therefore think 
is was only the " quickenings " of a pregnancy to be ma- 
tured two hundred years later on, as will appear. Of 
that Reformation one writer says : l 

"Though justification by faith was its dogmatic 
germ that great revolution took chiefly an ecclesiastical 
direction and became more an attempt to overthrow 
the organic system of popery by the reassertion of 
certain apostolic doctrines, than an evangelical revival 
of the spiritual life of the church ; hence its early loss 
of moral power." 

" It also retained many papal errors in its doctrines 
of the sacraments and of the priestly offices, and erred, 
above all, in leaving the church subject to the State.'' 
Hence its frequent lapses toAvard popery. The very 
same results followed the English Reformation, in 
respect to popery and the loss of spiritual power. The 
whole world seemed groaning under moral and spiritual 
darkness, and in order to show the density of this dark- 
ness as a fitting background to the light which followed 
it, we purpose to show the condition of the English 

ns' " History of Methodism in the Eighteenth century." 



222 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Church a little more than one hundred years ago.. 
" We see but a tithe of these things as compared with 
Europe, in the opening half of the last century when 
the human mind, pushing its inquiries in all directions,, 
approached and entered the domain of Metaphysics in 
religion. The disclosure of ancient errors in natural 
science, as well as the falsehoods of the Papacy, had 
cherished a rising habit of doubt, till incredulity was 
regarded as a token of superior wisdom. * * * The- 
ologians felt the influence, or yielded without conscious- 
ness. It was as if a mist had silently overspread the 
landscape; and neither tree nor hill, neither the house 
of God below nor the bright heaven above, was seen 
clearly. Not a land in Western Europe was exempt 
from that peculiar atmosphere in which all forms of 
speculation glided into incredulity. L " Never," said a 
writer in the North British Bevieiv, " has a century risen 
on England so void of soul and faith as that which 
opened with Queen Anne (1702) and reached its misty 
noon beneath the second George (1742-1760) — a dew- 
less night succeeded by a sunless dawn. * * * The 
Puritans were buried and the Methodists were not born. 
* * * The world had the idle, discontented look of the 
morning after some mad holiday." "In 1729 the heads of 
Oxford University complained of the spread of open 
deism among the students, and Cambridge struggled 
with the same evil." Isaac Taylor says: At the time 
when Wesley was acting as moderator in the disputa- 

1 The Problem of Religious Progress by Dr. Dorchester. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "'MAN OF SIN." 223 

tions at Lincoln College (1729-1734) there was no phi- 
losophy abroad in the world, — there was no thinking — 
that was not atheistic in its tone and tendency. 1 " Free- 
thinkers were formed into clubs to propagate their senti- 
ments, and Atheism was scattered broadcast through the 
kingdom." The pastoral letters of Bishop Gibson 2 
show that the most pernicious efforts were put forth to 
undermine religion. " Some set aside all Christian or- 
dinances, the Christian Ministry, and the Christian 
Church; others so allegorise Christ's miracles as to take 
away their reality; others display the utmost zeal for 
natural religion, in opposition to revealed; and all, or 
most, pleading for liberty, run into the wildest licen- 
tiousness. Keason is recommended as a good and suffi- 
cient guide in matters of religion, and the Scriptures 
are believed only so far as they agree or disagree with 
the light of nature. 

"Xow therefore what do I here, saith the Lord, seeing 
that my people is taken away for nought ? they that rnle 
over theni do howl, saith the Lord, and my name continually 

all the day is blasphemed " (Isa. 52-5). 

A writer in Blackwood's Magazine said, " Pope held 
his hereditary faith without the slightest appearance or 
pretense of any spiritual attachment to it." Sir John 
Barnard said, "It really seems to be the fashion for a 
man to declare himself of no religion." Montesquieu 
said, "There is no religion in England. If the subject 

1 " Wesley and Methodism." Am. edition, p. 33. 

2 Quoted in Tyerman's " Life of Wesley," Vol. 1, p. 219. 



224 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

is mentioned in society it excites nothing but laughter. 
Not more than four or five members of the House 
of Commons are regular attendants at Church." 
Bishop Butler says: 1 "It is come, I know not how, to 
be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christ- 
ianity is not so much as a subject for enquiry ; but it is 
now, at length, discovered to be fictitious. Accordingly, 
they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed 
point among all people of discernment, and nothing 
remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth 
and ridicule, as it were by way of reprisals for having so 
long interrupted the pleasures of the world." 

The clergy were thoroughly infected with this ten- 
dency. Natural religion included most of their the- 
ology. The great doctrines of the Reformation were 
banished from the universities and pulpits. A large 
class of divines held to a refined system of ethics, hav- 
ing no connection with Christian motives and the vital 
principles of spiritual religion. Arianism and Socini- 
anism were fashionable in the Established Church, and 
the prevailing creed of most intelligent Dissenters. 
Among the Presbyterians the departures from orthodoxy 
were very grave. Three profeesors in the University of 
Glasgow were Anti-trinitarians. An able school of 
Arian teachers arose among the Presbyterians, in 
Exeter, 2 about 1717. It spread through Cornwall, Dev- 
onshire, to the metropolis, and established itself in 

1 Preface to his "Analogy of Keligion" 1736. 

2 Mr. Leckey's England in the Eighteenth Century" vol.11, p586. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE " MAN OF SIN." 225 

Salters Hall, in London, among the descendants of a 
Puritan ancestry. " Latitndinarianism spread widely 
through all religious bodies, and dogmatic teachings 
were almost excluded from the pulpit." l 

Mr. Leckey says, "The doctrines of depravity, the 
vicarious atonement, the necessity of salvation, the new 
birth, faith, the action of the Divine Spirit in the be- 
liever's soul, during the greater part of the eighteenth 
century, were seldom heard from the Churck-of -England 
pulpits. The rationalistic tendencies of the church 
rendered it little obnoxious to skeptics. Leslie Stephens 
says, 2 "Hume and Paley curiously agreed in recom- 
mending young men of free-thinking tendencies to take 
orders ;" and that " the skepticism of the upper classes 
was willing that the Church should survive, though faith 
might perish. Many of the clergy taught but little 
that might not have been taught by Socrates or Con- 
fucius." "Christianity was reduced to the lowest terms," 
though some gave it "a quasi assent, because they felt 
it to be essential to society." 

In respect to the laboring classes a competent histo- 
rian of the Church-of-England says: 3 "Throughout 
England the education of the laboring classes was most 
grievously neglected, the supineness of the clergy of 
that age being manifest on this point, c(s on every oilier. 
Hannah Moore tells of finding in a village near the 

1 Ibid. p. 341. 

2 History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. 

3 Earl of Stanhope. 



226 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Cathedral City of Wells "but one Bible in all the 
parish, and that was used to prop a flower pot." Dr. 
Watts declares there was " a general decay of vital re- 
ligion in the hearts and lives of men," and he called 
upon every one to use all possible efforts for the recovery 
of dying religion in the world." Ministers of religion 
"knew nothing of the righteousness of faith in justifi- 
cation," and consequently cared little for the spiritual 
necessities of the people. They were often found in the 
ale houses and were not above street brawls. But this 
is only a small part of the testimony respecting the ter- 
rible condition of the church and of vital religion 
throughout Europe in the first half of the eighteenth 
century. 

But the dawn of a better day was at hand, and the 
Sun of Righteousness" was about to "rise with healing 
in his wings." On the 9th of May, 1785, died the vener- 
able Vincent Perronet, Yicar of Shoreham, one of Wes- 
ley's most gifted and pious helpers, whose pulpit was 
the only one in all England opened to him at the first. 
A short time before his death he wrote these memorable 
words to Charles Wesley, 1 " I make no doubt that Meth- 
odism, notwithstanding all the wiles of Satan, is designed 
by Divine Providence to introduce the approaching 
millennium." So says also the Divine Record : — 

"Arise, shine: for thy light is come, and the glory of the 
Lord is risen npon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall 
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people ; but the Lord 

1 Stevens' History of Methodism, p. 264. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAN OF SIN." 227 

shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee " 
(Isa. 60-1,2). 

When in 1740 the Wesley's and their co-religionists 
sought to lead the dissolute masses of the people to a 
Christian life, every pulpit in England, but the one 
named above, was closed against them, though they 
were regularly ordained ministers of the Established 
Church, which was declared to be an " ecclesiastical sys- 
tem under which the people of England had lapsed into 
heathenism, or a state hardly to be distinguished from 
it." 1 But now mark the contrast: — 

Under the mighty power of the Gospel in the hands 
of the Wesley's and Whitefield, aided by the witnessing 
Spirit, there came the " Great Awakening," which rose 
to its full power between the years 1760 and 1776-8: — 
more wonderful in its effects than anything which had 
happened since the days of the Apostles. But the State 
Church would have nothing to do with it ; therefore the 
great body of believers were obliged to organise 
themselves into distinct communities and churches, on 
the basis of an inner spiritual life and the assurance of 
a witnessing Spirit to the pardon of sin. Yet not alone 
in England was the effort to cleanse the existing church 
unsuccessful ; everywhere in Europe the movement was 
ridiculed and persecuted. That travesty on the gospel 
of Christ — the Roman Catholic Church — had so de- 
bauched the minds and hearts of the people that all 

1 Ibid. p. 30. 



228 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

religion was become throughout Europe, as in England, 
only a " fit subject of ridicule," save here and there with 
isolated communities as the Moravians and others. 

In the providence of God it was reserved for the 
Church in America to receive the full effects of this 
tidal wave of spiritual life by which she might cleanse 
herself from her impurities. 

"Shake thyself from the DUST; arise, and sit down, O 
Jerusalem; loose thyself from the hands of thy neck, O 
captive daughter of Zion. Put on thy strength, O Zion; put 
on thy heautiful garments, © Jerusalem, the 'HOLY CITY': 
for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the un- 
circumcised and the unclean" ( Isa. 52-2, 1 ). 

The effects of this revival of pure religion were mani- 
fested in cleansing the church of those who laid no 
claim to change of heart — those who had been admitted 
by what was known as the " half-way covenant " — in 
remodeling the church creeds on a simpler Christian 
basis, and in the adoption of a standard " Confession of 
faith.'" This, the Dissenting Churches in England did 
not see the necessity of and have never adopted to this 
day. All this occurred from a few years before White- 
field's death in 1770, up to the second "Great Awakening" 
about the year 1800. Since that time each and every 
candidate for church membership has been subjected 
to a strict examination as to his qualifications for this 
sacred relation. Thus the scripture is being fulfilled : 
" There shall no more come into thee the uncirciimcised 
and the unclean.'" So far as human precaution can help, 
it will continue thus to the end. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAN OF SIN." 229 



•• I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, 
which shall not hold their peace day nor night; ye that 
make mention of the Lord keep not silence, and give him 
no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a 
praise in the earth" (Isa. <>£-<>. 7). 

"In THAT DAY there shall be no more the Canaanite in 
the house of the Lord of Hosts " ( Zee. 14-31 ). 

Let His ministers see to it then that the church is kept 
free, with jealous care, of unsanctified members and 
unholy connexions. Let a pure and spiritual member- 
ship be its crowning glory. Let the " mountain of the 
Lord's house," be indeed and in truth a beacon light to 
all nations, through all generations. We do not by any 
means say the church is perfect, nor indeed what she 
ought to be, but that she has sfarted right for the first 
time in her history, and in the coming days and years 
of her glory all that is spoken of her shall be fulfilled. 

•• And it shall come to pass in THAT DAY, that the light 
shall not be clear nor dark: but it shall be one day which 
shall be known totlie Lord, not day. nor night: but it shall 
come to pass that at evening time it shall be light" (Zee. 
14-7). 

"And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in 
pure linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the right- 
eousness of the saints" (He v. 19-8). 

We will now take up the second one of our " condi- 
tions" (b). The prophesying in sackcloth of the "Two 
Witnesses" 1 — the Old and New Testaments, the Bible — 
would signify the same condition of gloom and 
depression for the word of God which we have en- 

1 See Appendix B. 



230 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

deavored to show for the church, and for the same 
length of time, with this explanation (given before in 
part). As the time of this prophesying is given by the 
full number of days, or years, and as the Bible was 
more particularly under the control of Rome and of her 
persecuting allies, we seem compelled to reckon by the 
full Roman time ; this event and the setting up of the 
kingdom being synchronous, as before shown in chap. 8. 
But all this is of little consequence beside the greater 
fact that through all this long period of darkness, ignor- 
ance and superstition, the Bible was a sealed book to the 
great body of the Western Church. By the inroads of 
those "Northern barbarians" and from other causes, the 
Latin language in which the Bible was written 1 became 
unfamiliar to the mass of the people, while the Western 
or Roman Church persisted in retaining the Vulgate 
version through all its history. Translations were made, 
to be sure, in Germany, Bohemia and England, but 
always under anathema and interdict, and burned 
wherever found. The people of these countries sought 
to read the portions and paraphrases given to them by 
their religious teachers, Jerome of Prague, Huss, Wy- 

1 A clergyman lost his wife in Rome and wished to put a text of 
scripture on her tombstone. The Pope refused permission not 
only on the ground that it was unlawful to express a hope of im- 
mortality as to a heretic, but because it was " contrary to law to 
publish in the sight of the Roman people any portions of the word 
of God." Pius IX. in his Encyclical letter of 1850 speaks of Bible 
study as poisonous reading. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE " MAN OF SIN." 231 

cliff e and others, and suffered great persecutions for so 
doing. In the Papal dominions proper, the Albigenses 
and Waldenses were nearly exterminated for their ad- 
herence to the truth as received from the word of God. 
Fully one million of them were put to death in France 
for their faith, during the 12th and 13th centuries. So 
that it may be truly said of the Bible, while it was 
preaching to the people the truths of God, it was doing 
so in "sackcloth" during all these long twelve hundred 
and sixty years, corresponding with the gloom and 
darkness which hung over the church. 

But there are conditions in connection with the wit- 
nesses which do not pertain to the church. There must 
come a specific time when (c) the witnesses must die — 
when the Bible must be considered a thing of the past 
in the stronghold of Papacy, (d e) Its unburied con- 
dition, and great rejoicing at its death must appear. 
(/ g) The Bible must suddenly come into prominence 
and attain a greater power than ever before, after several 
years of seeming death. All these things must be in 
connection (h) with some great political revolution 
which should be directed in an especial manner against 
papacy and imperialism or kingly power without con- 
sent of the people. To this we now turn to see how lit- 
erally all these conditions were fulfilled. 

The church had been arraigned for her absurd incon- 
sistencies ; for her prodigious claims upon the popular 
conscience and faith without giving any adequate re- 
turn, and for the heavy burdens imposed upon the shoul- 



232 • THE COMING KINGDOM. 

ders of the people, while she herself "would not lift 
them with one of her ringers." But the Bible, on the 
contrary, had been attacked as a myth, a fable, the work 
of imposters, as a lie without the shadow of proof. The 
popular mind was too ready to receive with eagerness 
the brilliant satires and witticisms of Voltaire, and to 
applaud his boast that he would make the Bible and 
Christianity a thing of the past. The polished sentences 
of Jean Jacques Bousseau did very much to undermine 
the popular faith in religion and its fountain, the Bible, 
and to substitute in their place among the upper classes 
the worship of nature, and the light of human reason. 
Tne common people saw only in the Roman Church and 
the privileged orders of the throne and the nobles, the 
cause of all their sufferings. 

It is not surprising, then, when the dark scenes of the 
Revolution burst upon France, the faithful daughter of 
the Papacy, which had so often since the days of Pepin, 
befriended the Church, that the Assembly and the sans- 
culottes should very early turn their attention to the 
Church property as legitimate spoils, and to the clergy 
as a part and parcel of the titled aristocracy to whom the 
people ascribed the terrible burdens of their lives. " The 
lawyers had caused agitation in the country ; the clergy 
had kindled civil war ; the nobles were now about to 
produce foreign wars." 1 These were the charges against 
them. In the latter part of 1789 the Church estates? 
immense in extent, were confiscated by the Assembly 

1 Carlyle's French Bevolntion. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAN OF SIN.'' 233 

and ordered to be sold for the benefit of the State. Then 
followed the abolition of all Monastic vows, religious 
orders and confraternities, " with the exception of a few 
useful ones." Titles and privileges were swept out of 
existence, and all made to stand on a common level of 
equality before the law and the popular will. 

Later on. the sans-culottes take a hand in the humili- 
ation of the church. At Lyons an ass is dressed in 
priest's cloak, with a mitre on his head. and. trailing the 
Mass-books and a Latin Bible at his tail — for there was 
not a French Bible in Lyons nor in all Paris — is marched 
through the streets to a funeral pile where they are 
burned. The Christian Sabbath is abolished and the 
tenth day is established as a rest day instead, in the new 
calendar. The Decalogue seems well nigh swept out of 
sight and hearing. A " Feast of Reason " is appointed 
among the intercalary days and the work is done. No 
more revelation, no more divine law. men become a law 
unto themselves. "Professing themselves to be wise, 
they became fools" (Roin. 1—22). The Bishop of 
Paris, with his Cfeipter. openly appears before the Con- 
vention and declares that he has all his life been preach- 
ing a lie, and that now there is ''no religion but 
Liberty.'' . 

God's word is dead, virtually dead " in the streets of 
the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and 
Egypt." Everywhere men rejoiced and embraced each 
other because the new and golden age of reason had 
come. The "Goddess of Beason — a courtesan of Paris 



231 THE COMING KINGDOM- 

— is about tj be worshipped, heralded by white young 
women girt in tri-color, and to the principal church of 
Notre-Dame they go to offer their homage. Her hence- 
forth we adore." Merry making and gifts are in order; 
time Nov. 1793. Here we will leave the Bible in the 
streets of the " great city " — for the same scenes were en- 
acted with it in Paris and all the larger cities — and give 
brief attention to the "great earthquake" that came 
with a mighty crash upon church, and throne, and 
nobility, and reacted upon the people themselves. 

Since symbolic prophecy deals only, as heretofore ob- 
served, with moral and political events, "this earth- 
quake" can only find its solution in the great civil, 
religious and political commotions of this same Revo- 
lution of France in 1793-4, which is our first supposable 
ending of the 1260 years. If all the conditions cluster 
around and find their plain solution in this date, then we 
are sure we have the right one and need look no further. 
Let us bear in mind, also, that France was the first to 
give the Papacy landed possessions and temporal 
power, and we can see the propriety of her being or- 
dained of God the first to take them away, eat up and 
destroy her substance, "burn her with fire," 1 and lead 
her into captivity, 2 as well as teach the other nations 
to do the same. 

No pen can adequately depict the horrors of that un- 
precedented revolution when the divine right of kings, 



1 Eev. 17-16. 

2 Ibid. 13-10. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAN OF SIN." 235 

a titled aristocracy, and a corrupt clergy, with all their 
privileges and emoluments, were swept away with unex- 
ampled rage and fury. To those long ages of misrule 
and oppression under royalty were added, as immediate 
precursors of this political "earthquake," three years of 
famine, and the great hail storm of 1788 which destroyed 
all the crops just ready for the sickle, and led vast 
masses of people to flock from the country districts into 
the city of Paris. It has been said of these that they 
were "mostly in rags, armed with great sticks, whose very 
look is menacing; vagabonds, ragged fellows, many al- 
most naked, and with appalling faces!" These, with the 
rabble of the city, were ready for any plots and excesses 
that promised them bread. The "reign of terror" had 
commenced. 

Contending parties sought to destroy each other, and 
suspicion reigned everywhere. The Guillotine had al- 
ready been set up. Then was passed the "Law of the 
Suspect"' of which Carlyle says : l "No frightfuller law 
ever ruled a nation of men. All Prisons and Houses of 
arrest in French land are getting crowded to the ridge- 
tile : Forty-four thousand Committees, like so many 
companies of reapers or gleaners, gleaning France and 
gathering their harvest, and storing it in these Houses — 
Harvest of Aristocrat tares ! Nay, lest the forty-four 
thousand, each in its own harvest field, prove insuffi- 
cient, we are to have an Ambulant Revolutionary Army ; 
six thousand strong, under right captains ; this shall 

1 French Ke volution, Yol. 2, p. 301. 



236 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

perambulate the country at large, and strike in wherever 
it finds such harvest work slack. So have Municipality 
and Mother Society petitioned ; so has Convention de- 
creed. Let Aristocrats, Federalists, Monsieurs, vanish, 
and all men tremble : the Soil of Liberty shall be 
purged— with a vengeance !" 

"Daily the great Guillotine has its due. Like a black 
Spectre, daily at even-tide, glides the Death-tumbril 
through the variegated crowd of things. The variega- 
ted street shudders at it, for the moment ; next moment 
forgets it: Aristocrats! They were guilty against the 
Republic ; their death, were it only that their goods 
are confiscated, will be useful to the Republic ; vive la 
Republique /" 

Notwithstanding the Guillotine was doing its deadly 
work at the rate of more than fifty per day at Paris,, 
suspects and condemned were accumulating in the 
prisons with frightful rapidity, until at one time twelve 
thousand were confined in them. Of these it has been 
said : " Perhaps no human habitation or prison ever 
equalled in squalor, in noisome horror, these twelve 
Houses of Arrest." To expedite the work four tribu- 
nals were created, each with its engine of death, till the 
very executioners were taxed beyond human endurance. 
Prisons all over France are full, and the executions by 
Guillotine amount to between two and three thousand 
daily. 

Then commenced, as at Nantes, a system of "fusilad- 
ing " or shooting the condemned in squads, one hundred 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAN OF SIN."' 237 

and twenty at one time : and, O horror of horrors ! 
barges were prepared and filled with the condemned — 
ninety at one time, one hundred and twenty at another 
— drifted to the middle of the Loire, scuttled and sunk, 
hatches down, all priests of the Romish Church. Sen- 
tence of deportation was thus, writes Carrier, "executed 
vertically." Many die in prison. Many thousands flee 
as best they may to escape the terrible vengeance that 
has come upon them. Suspicion reigns everywhere, 
and no one dares harbor a refugee lest his own head pay 
the penalty, and no one is safe. The Guillotine is made 
larger and more complete for more rapid execution ; 
when will it cease its horrid work ? 

"For her sins have readied unto heaven, and God hath 
remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she re- 
warded yoii. and double unto her double according- to her 
works: in the cup which she hath tilled till to her double' 
(Rev. 18-5.6). 

Surely the wind of St. Bartholomew has turned to the 
whirlwind of the Revolution, and "the time of her judg- 
ment is come that Thou shouldest give reward to thy 
servants and shouldest destroy them which destroy the 
earth" (chap. 11-18). "We are now, therefore,'" says 
Oarlyle, " got to that precipitous Abyss whither all things 
have long been tending. The harvest of long centuries 
was ripening and whitening so rapidly of late; and now 
it is grown ichite and is reaped rapidly, as it were in one 
dayP What a comment upon the truth of the prophetic 
record ! 



238 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



" Therefore shall her plagues come in ONE DAY, death, 
and. mourning, and famine. Alas, alas that great city Baby- 
lon, that mighty city ! " ( Rev. 18-8, lO). 

" For thou shalt no more be called, * The lady of kingdoms * 
Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, 
that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, 
and none else beside me ; I shall not sit as a widow, neither 
shall I know the loss of children : but these two things 
shall come to thee in a moment, in one day, the loss of 
children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee 1ST 
THEIR PERFECTION for the multitude of thy sorceries, 
and for the great abundance of thine enchantments" (.Isa. 
47-5, 8, 9). 

The scenes of these days cannot be depicted in words. 
Truly her cup was being filled to her double for all the 
cruelties of the past, inflicted in the name of Religion. 
Early in this year of 1793 the King, Louis XVI. , is led 
to the Guillotine with every indignity; and before the 
end of the year the Queen, Marie Antoinette, daughter 
of the Emperor of Austria, " is dragged on a hurdle by a 
circuitous route lined by thirty thousand troops and ten 
times that number of spectators, to the spot where Louis 
had died." " Shouts of joy and execration were raised 
on every side." By this act a blow was struck at impe- 
rialism, as well as at papacy which was to be consum- 
mated in the case of both by the " Man of destiny " 
before the scene closes. In this " reign of terror " it is 
estimated fully three millions of the best citizens of 
France perished by the hands of her own children. 
Thus there came, as it were in one day, loss of children 
and widowhood, ruthlessly murdered to satisfy the pop- 
ular clamor. But this is not all. As if to hurl defiance 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAN OF SIN." 239 

in the face of everything that pertained to royalty, "the 
tombs of St. Denis — the holy sepulchers wherein for 
nearly twelve centuries, from the days of Dagobert the 
son of Childeric, the bodies of the kings of France had 
rested — were now ordered for destruction by the Con- 
vention, and rifled by a Paris mob. The bodies of 
kings and heroes were torn from their coffins, and their 
bones and dust scattered in the air, or burnt by quick- 
lime in a vast trench. 

Nor is this all by any means, for her cup is not yet 
full. We have already spoken of the death of the "two 
witnesses" — the Bible — and the "earthquake" in which, 
the record says, "The tenth part of the city fell," and 
which caused Imperialism, in the person of the throne 
and the vested rights of the nobility, to topple and fall. 
It remains to show the spoliation visited upon the 
national church, and its effects outside of France upon 
the Papacy itself at Eome, the "seat of the beast." 

On the 7th of Nov. 1793, the municipality of Paris 
publicly dethroned " the King of Heaven" — to use their 
own words — "as well as the monarchs of the earth." 
" From this time, day after day, men came to the bar of 
the Convention and abjured Christianity." What need 
henceforth of churches ? and so there come from all 
parts patriotic gifts of church furniture ; "all highways 
jingle with metallic priest tackle beaten broad, sent to 
the Convention, for the poverty stricken mint." What is 
not of silver proves as good as a mine of lead and goes 
for bullets. Bells, except for tocsin, come down from 



240 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

ancient belfries and go to the foundries for cannon. 
Mass books are torn into cartridge papers, while internal 
decorations and sacristies are torn out for bonfires. 
Never was ruin so complete, for all are intent to have 
the churches plundered, " to have Keason adored, sus- 
pects cut down, and the Revolution triumph." 

But it does not end here. In 1796 Napoleon invaded 
the Papal states. Thirty-five millions of francs were 
levied as indemnity, and some of the finest works of art 
confiscated and sent to Paris. In 1798 a Republic was 
declared, and not long after the Pope himself, Pius VI, 
was put in close confinement at Grenoble, and after- 
wards removed to Valencia and confined in the Citadel, 
where he died. Under Pius VII. all the Papal states 
belonging to the church, which constituted the " tem- 
poral sovereignty" of the Papacy, were confiscated, and 
in 1810 he too was carried prisoner to France and did 
not return until 1814. The Papal states were after a 
time restored, but have now again been taken by Italy 
never more to be restored, and the Pope himself, shorn 
of his temporal power, declares' he is a prisoner in his 
own palace. 

" He that leadeth into captivity shall GO ItfTO CAPTIV- 
ITY ; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the 
sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints " 
( Rev. 13-10). 

"And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, 1 
these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and 
naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with Are " ( Rev. 
17-16). 

1 Ten horns are ten powers or kingdoms as per verse 12, chap. 17. 



DEATH BLOW TO THE " MAN OF SIN." 241 

There is not a power in Europe (nor for that matter 
in either Continent of America) which has not taken 
part in desp3iling the Papal church of her arbitrary 
powers and emoluments. Her strongholds of power by 
which she was enabled formerly to hold undisputed sway 
over the minds and even the lives of the people through- 
out her dominions, has been taken from her never 
more to he regained. Her assumed right, alone, to cele- 
brate the marriage sacrament has been taken from her. 
Her exclusive control of burial places and all church 
property, regardless of the rights of individuals and 
congregations who may have contributed towards them 
or invested in them, have been denied her. Her supreme 
control of all institutions of learning, as well as of ed- 
ucation itself, has been taken from her and in one form 
or another has been given to the State. Her right to 
appoint and displace priests and bishops at her own 
sweet will, has been greatly modified and curtailed in 
almost all the kingdoms of Europe ; and last but by no 
means least, her diplomatic relations with all the world 
have been completely severed, and she has now no resi- 
dent ministers and agents to and from her former willing- 
vassals. 

We left our " two witnesses " — the Bible — dead in the 
streets of the "great city which is called Sodom and 
Egypt where also our Lord was crucified "; i. e., his gos- 
pel and himself are rejected, and an infamous prostitute 
substituted in his place — " away with him " and give us 
"Barrabas." When the three years and a half were ended 



242 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

according to the mind of the Spirit, it is impossible to- 
tell, no clue is given. All we are told is this : — 

" And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from* 
Ood entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and 
great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard 
a great voice, saying unto them, Come up hither. A id they 
ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld 
them" (Rev. 11-11, 13). 

One of the chief causes which led to a love for and 
unwonted activity respecting the Bible in connection 
with the new spiritual life of the Church, already 
described, lies in the reaction which took place when a, 
better reading of the " Dendera Tables " — which at first 
were popularly believed to have overturned the Mosaic 
account of creation and connecting events — led to re- 
newed and greatly increased faith in the divine record as 
the true word of God, and that it would surely "accom- 
plish that whereunto it is sent." 

This new confidence in the Bible gave a wonderful 
impetus to efforts for the spreading of the Word 
without note or comment. Bible societies began to be 
organised for more thorough work than had heretofore 
been undertaken ; notably, the British and Foreign' 
Bible Society in 1804 ; two in America in 1809, after- 
wards merged in the American Bible Society. At this 
present time there are more than eighty societies and 
auxiliaries for the printing of God's word. Even Vol- 
taire's old printing press is said to have done duty in the 
same line, while the very house where he lived is now a. 
depot for the Geneva Bible Soc. publications, and: 



DEATH BLOW TO THE "MAN OF SIN." 243 

packed with Bibles. His prediction that one hundred 
years would witness the Bible and Christianity a thing 
of the past, is the very opposite of the truth. To-day 
" the good old Book" stands on a height it never reached 
before, from which there is no receding. 165,000,000 of 
Bibles, Testaments, and portions of Scripture, in two 
hundred and six languages and dialects, tell of the 
wonderful activity that has sprung into being for the 
spread and study of God's word since the creation of the 
societies. Is it possible that all these scenes and 
events necessary to the filling of the conditions, shall 
ever be re-enacted ? If not, then they are in truth 
things of the past and the prophecy is fulfilled. 

Now let us stand for a moment in the midst of the 
scenes of this mightiest revolution that ever shook the 
world, both in its scope and its results. Let us catch 
the spirit of the events we have so briefly and so feebly 
narrated in connection with the symbolisms of the 
eleventh chapter of Rev., which may not inaptly be 
termed death bed scenes of the Papacy. Look back 
over the dark ages of the past under the domination of 
the beast and his rider — the "woman arrayed in purple 
and scarlet," " mother of harlots and abominations of the 
earth." Listen to the prayer of her slain, " How long, 
O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge 
our blood on them that dwell on the earth" (6-10). 

Now turn and consider the events which started out 
from this dark background into new life and promi- 
nence — the birth in one day of the latter day kingdom ; 



244 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

the re-awakening of the modern Church, the resurrection 
of the Word of God from the sackcloth cerements of a 
death without sepulture — and tell me if the Angels who 
saw these facts of the past and the future more clearly 
than you or I can, were not right in exclaiming with 
exultant voices : — 

"The kingdom of this world, is become the kingdom of 
our Lord and of his Christ ". 

Moved by this exultant song of victory, the four and 
twenty elders take up the theme and ring it out through 
Heaven's high arches : — 

" We give thee thanks. O Lord C*od Almighty, which art. 
and wast, and art to come : because thou hast taken to thee 
thy great power AXD HAST BEOUU TO REIttaf" (11-17). 

To all intents and purposes the Papacy is dead, and 
its persecuting power is gone forever. Her Imperial 
ally, the real executor of all the cruel orders of the 
Papacy, is too near his own end to be longer feared ; 
while their united efforts, just now intensely active, to 
restore the temporal power of the Pope, will involve 
both in irremedial ruin and a common grave in the " sea " 
and the " Abyss " from which they came. (Rev. 18-21 
and 20-3). For this happy event the world is ready to 
exclaim, Amen ! and Amen ! 

Let us now come back to events in the New World 
and see what progress our young nation is making 
towards manhood. 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 245 



CHAPTER XL 

FIERY TRIALS AND JUDGMENTS FOR CLEANSING 
THE KINGDOM. 

" Hear the word of the Lord ye children : for the Lord hath a 
controversy with the inhabitants of the land because there is no 
truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. . By swear- 
ing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, 
they break out and blood toncheth blood ; therefore shall the land 
mcurn" (Hosea 4-1. 2). 

"In thee have they set light by father and mother; in the midst 
of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger; in thee 
have they wronged the fatherless and the widow; thou hast despised 
mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths; in thee have 
they taken gifts to shed blood ; thou hast taken usury and increase, 
and thou hast greedily gaiued of thy neighbor by extortion, and 
hast forgotten me, saith the Lord " (Eze. 22-7, 8). 

"As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: 
therefore they are become great and waxen rich ; they are waxen 
fat, tbey shine ; yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked ; they 
judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper 
and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit 
for these things ? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on 
such a nation as this ?" (Jer. 5-27 to 29). 

"Therefore thus saith the Lord: ye have not hearkened unto 
me, in proclaiming liberty, every man to his neighbor, and every 
one to his brother ; behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the 
Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine" (Jer. 
34-17). 

" If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that 



246 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and 
fearful name, The Lord Thy God ; then the Lord will make thy 
plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, 
and of long continuance, and sore sickness and of long continu- 
ance " (Deut. 28-58, 59). 

Although these sins are charged against Israel of old 
and they have suffered the predetermined penalty, in- 
flicted as we have seen with terrible severity, yet there 
is nothing to prevent a repetition of like judgments for 
like offenses. This appears to be assured from the fact 
that history is constantly repeating itself, and (since 
"all judgment has been committed to the Son") his 
coming in judgment upon the ungodly for the idolatry 
of this age — whose harvests of crime are a fac-simile of 
the ancient crop — is now at our very doors and ready to 
burst upon us. 

It seems strange that one hundred years of national 
life under such great mercies should have produced 
such a crop of "tares" as here enumerated by the 
prophets, yet we cannot deny the truthfulness of the 
picture. But even this was foretold by Christ in the 
parable alluded to. In the parable of " The Sower " 
(Matt. 13-4, 8), the seed is the word of the kingdom, 
and the product are the followers of Christ — Christians. 
In the parable of " The Tares," on the contrary, the seed 
sown are the children of the kingdom (ver. 38), and 
the resultant harvest is the kingdom of Christ on earth. 

But the tares are the children of the wicked one — 
wicked men, anarchists, atheists, and the like — and the 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 247 

harvest is at the '• consummation of the age" when the 
kingdom is to be cleansed of them by pestilence, which 
answers to fire for the natural product. 

"The field is the world " : but which world? Evidently 
not the old world, for that was nearly all tares when 
the gospel of the kingdom was first proclaimed. Clearly, 
then, the New World is meant, and this answers to both 
the prophetic and historic record, as we have shown. 
Hence the parable can find its solution nowhere else. 
The last of the seven parables (ver. 47) continues the 
same idea and shows the necessity, as well as the jus- 
tice, of the judgment which shall separate the bad from 
the good, and prefigures the absolute certainty of the 
final judgment and separation of the wicked from the 
good at the end of the world. 

"But every man shall die for HIS OWK INIQUITY; 

every man that eateth the sour graue. his teeth shall he set 
on edge " ( Jer. 31-30). 

We have not the slightest foundation for believing that 
the days of vengeance for offended law are over, but 
every assurance for the reverse. As in Egypt the death 
of the first-born was. in the cumulative judgments, the 
heaviest of all preceding the deliverance of God's peo- 
ple, so we may fairly infer that the last crowning judg- 
ments of God upon a guilty world before the kingdom is 
voluntarily given into the hands of the Son of David for 
an everlasting kingdom, will be of the most stupendous 
character and most decisive in their results. But we 
are not left to inference alone for our conclusions re- 



248 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

specting the terrible nature and near approach of these 
judgments. Let us for a moment consider the time of 
the harvest. 

Whatever may be our individual belief respecting the 
peculiar character and the time of each of the seven 
plagues or vials of wrath, to be poured out upon those 
twin brothers of iniquity — Imperialism and Papacy — 
there can be now but one intelligent and well grounded 
opinion as to their commencement at the time of the 
French Kevolution, substantiated as it has been by the 
mighty events which have transpired within the pale of 
those ten kingdoms since that time 1 

But if there lingers doubt in any mind respecting 1 
these statements, the character of the sixth plague 2 and 
the present signs of the times ought certainly to set it 
at rest at once. Expositors of note agree that Euphrates 
is used in the Apocalypse as a symbol of the Turkish 
power, and its drying up is intended to indicate the 
gradual yet speedy decay of that once formidable em- 
pire. "Two woes are past; behold, the third woe com- 
eth quickly" said the angel at the sounding of the 
seventh trumpet when the "mystery of God" was fin- 
ished. Consequently we find that power gradually 
losing its hold upon its vassal states and kingdoms. 
First, Egypt gained many concessions; then Greece set 
up for herself in 1828 ; and in the last Eusso-Turkish 
war all her provinces north of the Balkan mountains 

1 Appendix C. 
Rev. 16-12. 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 249 

gained their autonomy or right to govern themselves, 
with hardly a blow struck on their own account, simply 
by the acquiescence of Germany and Russia. 

This war of three years duration Avas one of the most 
singular on record; for, while Turkey had an army of 
two hundred and fifty thousand men constantly in the 
field at various points eating out her substance, not a 
notable or decisive battle was fought in all that time, so 
literally are the words of scripture fulfilled. The Lon- 
don Times gave emphasis to this when it declared, 
" Turkey appears to be dying of dry rof.'' Even at that 
time Bismarck openly invited Austria to help herself to 
turkey, but her time had not come. 

It cannot now be long delayed when Austria and Rus- 
sia will divide between themselves all that is left of 
Turkey in Europe. When this takes place England 
will certainly foreclose her "protectorate " mortgage on 
what is left of Turkey in Asia, to protect her Suez canal 
against the designs of Russia, which she will do at all 
hazards l Germany will be remunerated for assent to 
these sweeping "reforms" by taking the German half 
of Austria, and so all parties will be compelled to be 
satisfied, save Russia, who will find in England's share 
of the spoils in Asia a sure cause of complaint and war. 
But Turkey will disappear quietly, vanishing out of sight 
forever like the drying up of a river, and the way will 
be prepared for the seventh angel to u pour out his vial 
into the air" (chap. 16-17). Immediately following 

1 Please read Isa. 19-20. 



250 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



this notable event the following declaration is made : 

"And there came out of the temple of heaven, a great 
voice from the throne, saying, IT IS DOXE. And there were 
voices, and thunderings, and lightnings; and there was a 
great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the 
earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great" (Rev, 16-17, 
18). 

The tremendous preparations in Europe for a conflict 
in the near future of which they have no certain knowl- 
edge, ought to have great significance with us and cause 
us to ponder well the " signs of the times," for we are 
assured by the above quotation that nothing like it has 
ever been seen on this earth since man was upon it. 
Mighty and terrific as the French Eevolution was, this 
one shall be so great that the former shall sink into 
insignificance beside it. That was but the after pangs 
of the birth of a nation ; this shall be the convulsive 
throes of the dissolution of hoary headed kingdoms. 
Russia has constituted herself the head of Imperialism, 
and, in some way, will enter into the scheme of the 
Papacy and the border States for the restoration of the 
temporal power of the Pope, and to further her own 
schemes of aggrandisement through the Greek Church. 
Perhaps the "deadly wound " of the beast will be healed. 
Who knows ? Of one thing we are certain. Russia 
and all who are joined with her will have an opponent 
of whom they little dream, who will sink them out of 
sight, as saith the prophet Ezekiel : 

"Thus saith the I«ord God: Behold, I am against thee O 
Gog, prince of ROSM, Meshech and Tubal; and I will plead 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 251 



against him with pestilence and with blood : and I will rain 
upon lii in. and upon his hordes, and upon the many people 
that are with hi in. an overflowing shower, and great hail 
stones, Are, and brimstone" ( Chap. 38-3, 22). 

Now if these events are to take place in the Old World 
upon the enemies of God and political Israel, prepara- 
tory to the reign of universal peace, we may fairly 
infer that simultaneous with these stupendous events 
will be the destruction of the wicked on this side of the 
water, and the cleansing of this God-given land — this 
sanctuary of spiritual Israel — at, or prior to, the taking of 
the kingdom by Christ, the son of David. The cleansing 
of the Temple in the olden time was but a type of this ; 
yet how insignificant was that event compared with this 
later cleansing. That was with a whip of cords ; this 
will be by the inexorable, relentless, operation of law, 
every man dying for his own iniquity. As that was 
introductory to his public ministry as the Messiah, so 
this cleansing of the human fabric of the divine govern- 
ment — the truer temple of the indwelling presence — will 
be preparatory to his taking the throne as the true and 
only successor of his father David. Of this cleansing 
in respect of time and necessity Christ has given fair 
warning. 

•• The tares are the sons of the evil one : and the enemy 
that sowed them is the devil: and the harvest is the con- 
summation of the age. and the reapers are angels; and they 
shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stum- 
bling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into 
the furnace of fire" (JIatt. 13-38,41). 

"But take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts 



252 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares 
of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares : for 
as a SXARE shall it come on all them that dwell on the 
face of the whole earth" (Luke 31-34, 35). 

"For the upright shall DWEL.L. IX THE LAND, and the 
perfect shall REMAIN in it : but the wieked shall be cut off 
from the earth, and the TRAASORESSORS shall be ROOTED 
OUT OF IT" (Prov. 3-31, 22). 

The whole tenor of scripture points the same way, 
that the wicked in the latter day shall suffer the conse- 
quence of their doings, and the righteous shall reap the 
reward of theirs. The one class shall miserably perish, 
while the other shall long live to " enjoy the work of 
their hands." In the olden time the sins of the wicked 
brought ruin upon all, good and bad alike. In the lat- 
ter day "every mem shedl die for his own iniquity." 
Then the righteous were carried into captivity in the 
common calamity for the common good. In these days 
it will be a "survival of the fittest," that they may 
"dwell in a place of their own," with their enemies far 
removed from them. Those who smell fire wherever 
they see the word, are, we fear, too much of the spirit 
of those " sons of thunder " who desired to call down 
fire from heaven to consume them who would not receive 
Christ. His answer ought to silence us : " Ye know not 
what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man 
is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them " 
(Luke 9-54). In the next chapter we shall show the 
character of Christ's coming. At present let us look for 
a moment and see if fire can be mentioned and have no 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 253 

reference to the end of the world. Hear what Malachi 

says : 

"But who niay abide the day of His coining? and who 
shall stand when He appeareth? * * * For, behold, the day 
eonieth that shall burn as an oven : and all that do wickedly 
shall be stubble ; and the day that cometh shall burn theni 
up. saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither 
root nor branch" (Chap. H-'Z and 4-1 ). 

Now these terrible denunciations of Malachi have 
generally been held to refer to the days of Christ's first 
advent, and had special reference to the purity of his 
teachings, the exactitude of his requirements, and the 
all consuming nature of his love as compared with the 
formalism of the times and the hypocrisy of the Phari- 
sees. Just so these latter-day judgments will be the 
natural outcome of the moral turpitude and corruption 
seen in these days in defiance of all the lessons of the 
past, which cannot abide the purity of " the perfect law 
of liberty," nor stand the test of His all absorbing zeal 
and love. He says, therefore, that He will come by the 
sword and by flood and by pestilence to execute judg- 
ments upon them who despise his laAv and trample on 
his sabbaths. 

We have already suffered the judgment of the sword 
which for five years was bathed in fratricidal blood be- 
cause of our refusal to hear the cry of the stronger and 
" let the oppressed go free." For fifty years the oppor- 
tunity was offered to the people and the Christian Church 
"to deal justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy 
God" in respect of the slaves of this land, and we re- 



254 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

fused to do it. We selfishly said, If the Southern 
people want slaves let them have them, but we do not 
want them in the North. Those who sought to defend 
their cause or labored for their release from the cruel 
bonds of unremunerated toil were ridiculed, abused and 
oftentimes assailed. 

Christians kept on praying, "Thy kingdom come," 
but they never lifted a finger to carry out one of the 
chief purposes for which the Son of Man came to the 
earth, "to open the prison doors and let the oppressed 
go free." Nor would they until doomsday, if God had 
not taken the cause of the oppressed in hand and deliv- 
ered them by a " mighty hand and an outstretched arm." 
But He laid more than the full price of their ransom 
upon the shoulders of the North. In nearly every house- 
hold in the land, north and south, the avenging angel 
entered and, failing to see the blood of the covenant 
taken from the bleeding wounds of Calvary, but, rather, 
the blood of poor enslaved Africa, from the cruel lash of 
the slave driver's whip, took the first-born and, often, 
more as the terrible penalty of complicHy with wrong 
doing and crime. 

In the providence of God another question of far 
deeper import, in its terrific results upon the homes of 
the people and upon the moral character of the youth 
of the land, is presented to us for our suffrages. We 
are tampering with it very much the same as we did 
with the question of human slavery, though this en- 
slavement of which we speak begets a servitude more 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 255 

damning by a thousand fold, than the worst forms of 
human slavery ever were. Slavery left a man's soul 
unfettered, though his body was loaded with chains, and 
free for a hope of eternal life and joy beyond the grave; 
but the slave of the cup is doomed for time and for 
eternity. His home on earth becomes a hell, and his 
future life is hell intensified . 

Thousands of professing Christians are saying, " We 
don't like the methods of those who propose to anni- 
hilate this evil at once ; it is altogether too sadden ; the 
thing can't be done." Just what you or your fathers 
said about slavery, until God got tired of waiting for 
your slow movements and compelled you to " undo the 
heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free." 

But for God's abounding mercy in raising up a noble 
company of Christian women, burning with love for 
Christ and for human souls, who have set their hearts 
and hands to the work of cleansing the land of this foul 
blot, we should find ourselves very shortly paying a 
severer penalty for our indifference, and high license com- 
plicity with this abominable curse, by so much as the 
slave of the cup is more unutterably cursed than the 
slave of the lash. They come to the Christian people of 
this land and ask us for our help by giving them the 
franchise, or for our votes against the evil — either or 
both — for its utter annihilation. If you will not give 
either, but choose rather to be reckoned among the great 
arm} r of saloon keepers, atheists and socialists as one of 
themselves — as a church elder found himself recently 



256 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

after a vote for high license — the curse of God will 
certainly rest upon you and yours, and you will pay the 
penalty sooner or later with fearful interest. Remember 
the judgment of the sword. 

" If thou lias t run with the foot men and they wearied thee, 
then how wilt thou contend with horses ? and if in the land 
of peace wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then 
how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" ( Jer. 12-5). 

" Oo through, go through the gates ; prepare ye the way 
of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the 
stones ; lift up a standard for the people. Take up the 
stumbling -block out of the way of my people" (Isa. 62-10: 
57-14). 

We have already given in the first chapter some little 
idea of the enormity of this crime of crimes. But it 
needs to be impressed on every reader in every possible 
way what an immense stumbling-block is this hell-born 
traffic to the progress of the truth and the establishment 
of Christ's kingdom on the earth. It is impossible that 
His kingdom and one of Satan's mightiest agencies, if 
not the very throne of the arch fiend himself, should 
exist in the same realm together ; one or the other must 
go down. If you are a follower of Christ you ought to 
know which will be the conqueror. If you do know, 
how can you say, " It can't be done," and because you 
think it can't be done you will help to continue its foul 
and slimy existence by licensing and giving it legitimacy 
and respectability. Nineteen millions of communicants 
at the Lord's table in this land, male and female, ought 
to furnish a sufficient number of brave, earnest, souls to 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 257 

drive out this monster. But for the deadened consciences 
and pusillanimous members of the Church of Christ it 
would be done immediately. 

It is not a question for the reader to ask whether one 
or another is the better way for controlling and regulat- 
ing the business; it is only a question of right or wrong. 
If it is right, good, and wholesome, then vote to continue 
it. But if it is wrong, an evil, and a curse, then help to 
stamp it out at once. The experience of two hundred 
years shows conclusively that the business is not one to 
be controlled or kept within safe limits. The cold- 
blooded murder of at least four persons, and now the 
beating of another one nearly to death for daring to en- 
force the laws for the regulation of this business, shows 
the desperate character of those engaged in the sale of 
the poison. For this opposition to law is not the act of 
one or two men whose business might be injured or in- 
terfered with, but the deliberate and concerted action of 
a whole community of saloon keepers and liquor men. 
Every man, therefore, who votes to continue this busi- 
ness by high license or otherwise for the revenue it 
brings to the corporation treasury, becomes a partici- 
pator in the crimes as well as the profits of the business. 
Flee from the unholy copartnership, as you would the 
fangs of the Cobra. 

Yet not alone to the crime of drink are all the judg- 
ments to be charged, for its twin sister, covetousness, 
comes in for a full share of the rewards of unrighteous- 
ness, since Paul declares it to be idolatry. If it can be 



258 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

judged by its effects, truly Paul was not far out of the 
way, for debauchery, licentiousness, perversion of jus- 
tice, and blood, would seem to brand it as equal in its 
influence to any effects of idol worship ever practiced by 
ancient Israel. We have no need to dwell long on this 
part of our theme, for the rumbling of the chariot wheels 
of coming vengeance is heard from every quarter of the 
land. Though the demon of drink lies in great measure 
at the bottom of the discontent and poverty of the 
laboring classes, yet it cannot be denied that the inor- 
dinate greed of gain which seems to possess all classes, 
as if that alone was the chief end of man here and here- 
after, gives just ground of complaint and affords these 
blatant orators the staple subject for all their harangues' 
If men were not dead to all sense of shame and self- 
respect ; if the love of gain had not blinded men to the 
miseries of others ; if their consciences had not become 
seared as with an hot iron, and their eyes covered with 
golden scales, they would be able to see the disreput- 
able nature of this business of dealing out death and eternal 
damnation to those who otherwise would have adorned 
some home and been a helper and not a besotted drone 
in the human hive. More than seven hundred millions 
of dollars pass over the counters of these men in the 
dishonest desire to transfer without proper equivalent to 
their own corrupt pockets, the hard earned wages of 
honest toil. These millions are taken from fourteen 
million five hundred thousand men and women who are 
either confirmed drinkers of alcoholic and malt liquors 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 259 

or are traveling that road with sure and speedy steps, of 
whom sixty thousand drop annually into a drunkard's 
grave. Surely there is need to take the stumbling blocks 
out of the way, for out of these two offenses spring all 
the minor crimes charged upon Israel of old, for which 
they were driven out from their beautiful vineyards and 
homes to become wanderers in the earth. 

Nor are these the full measure of our guilt in imita- 
tion of the sins of olden time, however much we may 
boast of ourselves as belonging to an advanced civilisa- 
tion. The slightest causes are now, as of old, made the 
excuse for divorce and desertion from those whom we 
have promised before God to love and cherish until death 
comes to sever the connection. The Courts are filled 
with these constantly increasing cases of heartless and 
cruel desertions which include all classes, high and 
low, rich and poor, christian and infidel. To her shame, 
be it said, the Church has winked at this state of things 
by giving to such persons recommendations to sister 
churches, and receiving the same from others. 

But, thanks be to God, a different sentiment is begin- 
ning to prevail, which gives promise of better things to 
come, and it cannot come any too soon, for Christ denomi- 
nates those who are guilty of it without proper ground, as 
adulterers. Yet in an Eastern church recently a minis- 
ter was compelled to resign his pastorate because he 
had spoken plainly of this great and growing sm, a 
leading member of whose congregation had not only 
been himself divorced, but had then recently married a 



260 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

divorced woman. Ministers of the pure and holy Jesus, 
lift up your voices with one accord against this crime 
against nature and refuse to high and low, rich and poor, 
the banns of marriage where either party has been 
divorced save for the one crime of adultery. 

Another relict of the olden crimes is found under the 
garb of religion in the plurality of wives as practiced 
in Utah. Unless christian ministers and others are 
active and vigorous in their opposition, the hope of gain 
to either political party may lead to the reception of 
Utah as a State, when she must of necessity be left to 
regulate her own internal affairs according to her own 
liking. Just here comes in the necessity of an amend- 
ment to the Constitution which shall make the word of 
God the basis of all moral legislation, and not the 
customs or sentiment of the people. By such a change 
polygamy becomes a crime against God and not against 
laws for social order. Under such a law no State could 
enter the Union, whatever the advantage might be to 
parties, with such a record as that of Utah. But as we 
have already spoken of this evil in the first chapter, we 
will pass on without further comment. 

The last in the list of sins which characterised Israel 
of old, which threatens to engulf us as a nation is, pollu- 
tion of the Sabbath by devoting it to unholy purposes 
of gain and pleasure. In the Report of the Sabbath 
Commission in Massachusetts, it is stated that the first 
Sunday trains in this country were run into Boston for 
the convenience of church members residing in the 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 261 

country, who desired to attend the ministry of their 
regular pastors in the city, and who had sufficient influ- 
ence to have an accommodation train run for their 
especial advantage. From this small beginning have 
come the running of Sunday trains all over the country 
for all sorts of purposes. 

Our chief rulers and our legislators in too many 
instances, like the princes of Israel, have little regard 
for the sanctities of the Sabbath, and are unmindful of 
the example they set to the people and of the risks in- 
curred in their disregard of God's righteous law. Even 
Congress in the last hours of its sessions has not scru- 
pled to encroach on the sacred hours of the Sabbath, 
with all the turmoil of closing scenes. But above all, 
the Government has become a desecrator of the Sabbath — 
one of colossal proportions — in carrying and distributing 
the mails in all the large cities and towns of the land 
which contain some 60,000 offices whereby the employees 
are compelled, to a greater or less extent, to forego the 
restful, freshening and elevating influences of that holy 
day, and are as it were forced to assist in calling down 
the penalties of an outraged law of God. 

The running of the mail trains for the Government 
furnishes the K. R. officials an all powerful excuse for 
the continuance of the Sunday trains for other purposes 
by which hundreds of thousands, mostly young men, are 
compelled to become violators of God's law, to their own 
moral and physical debasement. " Shall I not visit for 
these things, saith the Lord ? Most assuredly He will, 



262 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

and that right early, for, as events are now occurring, the 
days of trial cannot be far off. European statesmen 
seem to have a precience of the coming doom of nations, 
and are preparing for it as best they may under the 
inspiration of the spirit of all evil, but under the directing 
"hands of the mighty God of Jacob." We too are 
preparing for it under the same directing hand but with 
not half vigor enough. 

"A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for 
the l*ord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead 
with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the 
sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, 
evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirl- 
wind shall he raised up from the coasts of the earth" * * * 
(Jer. 25-3 1,33). 

But the " weapons of our warfare are not carnal but 
spiritual " and moral, and " mighty through God to the 
pulling down of strong holds." We have no need of 
armies but we have need of men, Christian men ; men 
true to their convictions of right and fearless in pro- 
claiming them ; men who love the truth rather than the 
praise of men, who esteem " the reproach of Christ 
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." Who of 
such " will come up to the help of the Lord against the 
mighty ? " per adventure we may greatly modify and 
lessen the calamities that are surely coming to cleanse 
this God-given land of " all things that offend, and of 
them which do iniquity." 

Are you aware, dear reader, that infidels, atheists, 
socialists, and nihilists, are organised and organising all 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 263 

over the country in city, town and village, for the express 
purpose of removing by legislation every distinctively 
christian usage of the Government '? Such is the fact, 
and they are confident of success, basing their " de- 
mands" on the fact that God is not recognised in the 
Constitution. Hence, they argue, the Government has 
no right to recognise in any form whatever, the usages 
of the Christian religion above the Muhamadan, Parsee, 
Heathen or any other religions. Their " demands " 
occupy a prominent place in their leading papers and 
are of this sort. (1) "We demand that churches and 
all other ecclesiastical property shall no longer be 
exempt from taxation. (2) The employment of chap- 
lains in all institutions supported by public money, 
shall be discontinued. (3) That all religious services 
now sustained by the Government shall be abolished, 
and especially that the Bible in the public schools, 
whether as a text-book or for religious worship, shall be 
prohibited. (4) That the appointment by the President 
or by the Governors of states, of religious festivals, or 
fasts, shall wholly cease. (5) That all laws directly en- 
forcing the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath shall 
be repealed. (6) That judicial oaths shall be abolished, 
and simple affirmation under penalties be substituted. 
(7) That all laws looking to the enforcement of " Chris- 
tian" morality be abrogated. (8) That in all Govern- 
ment and State action no preference shall be given the 
Christian religion. (9) That the whole political system 
shall be founded on a purely secular basis. 



264 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Christian men have seen this threatened danger and 
have felt compelled to organise themselves into " The 
Moral Reform Association " for the purpose of arousing 
the christian public on this great question by the circu- 
lation of information by pamphlets, by lectures, and by 
the publication of a paper devoted to this and kindred 
subjects. 1 They had been satisfied, but for this organi- 
sation of infidels, to let truth make its own way, being 
sure of the final result. The " Liberal League " com- 
pelled organisation on the part of the friends of God for 
the purpose of saving what He has given to us of free 
institutions. 

Coincident with this movement, appears this mighty 
'•' Crusade " against the saloon, championed by the 
Christian women of the land under a divine inspiration, 
fco avert if possible some portion of the overflowing storm 
of retribution that is surely coming to sweep over the 
Land for its cleansing. We have already had the sword 
as heretofore stated. We have had a foretaste of what 
the fire can do in two of the largest fires of modern 
times. We have but snuffed the breeze of the coming 
tempest in the terrible tornadoes of the western plains. 
Water-clouds, phenomenal tides, tidal waves and burst- 
ing waters from pent up floods have told in some slight 
degree what may be expected "when the overflowing- 
scourge shall pass through " upon a sin laden and God- 
defying people. 

Even old earth herself has staggered under the great 

1 The Christian Statesman, 1520 Chestnut st., Philadelphia, Pa. 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 265 

load of inquity resting upon her breast and has " reeled 
to and fro like a drunken man," carrying dismay un- 
utterable to thousands of brave hearts. " Even the pesti- 
lence that walketh in darkness, and the destruction that 
wasteth at noon-day," have not left us without a fore- 
taste of coming doom. Though these are but premoni- 
tions, they call upon us with no uncertain voice to 
•'Cleanse the land and remove the stumbling blocks out 
of the way." * 

" For tlie Ijord shall make a consumption, even determined. 
in the midst of the land " ( Isa. 10-23 ). 

"THAT DAY is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and 
distress, a day of elouds and thick darkness, and their blood 
shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung; for he 
shall make a speedy riddance of all them ( sinners ) that dwell 
in the land" (Zeph. 1-15, 17 18). 

"For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to 
punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity : 
the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more 
cover her slain " (Isa. 26-21). God's people are told to 
rejoice when they see all these things coming to pass : 
" for lo, your redemption draweth nigh " and there need 
be no fear. He will provide a place of refuge as he has 
said : 

u Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut 
thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little 
moment, until the indignation be overpast" (Isa. 26-&©). 

We are no alarmists, sounding the " tocsin " without 
sufficient occasion. Through all this coming trouble we 



26'6 THE COMING KINGBOM. 

can see the silver lining to the cloud, and that it is; 
but the ushering in of a better day, a day of triumph for 
those whose faith can ride the storm and whose bodies 
are clean enough and pure enough to withstand the 
pestilence. But, christian reader, how will you cleanse 
your skirts of the blood of those with whom you daily 
walk and converse, and never warn by pleading words 
of tenderness of the danger they are courting by a life 
of sin and open neglect of the great offer of love and 
mercy ? Are there not some whom you can " pluck as 
brands from the burning ?" Some whom you may help 
to protect by the blood of the covenant " sprinkled on 
the door-posts and lintels" when the avenging angel 
passes through ? 

God is laying " judgment to the line and righteousness 
to the plummet " in these three questions now placed by 
His marvelous providence before the American Chris- 
tian public for their earnest consideration, Yes or no. 
First, shall this fair land be any longer fouled and cursed 
by the saloon with its slimy trail of sixty thousand 
yearly victims? or shall the land be cleansed and made 
the happiest and most prosperous on the earth for ages 
to come? Second, shall the Sabbath be any longer pol- 
luted and thereby cursed, by the greed of gain and lust 
of pleasure ? or shall it be lifted again to its divine pedes- 
tal as an institution of God for man's spiritual profit 
and endowment? Third, shall the Word of God be 
taken as a basis of national legislation, and Christ, the 
son of David, be acknowledged — as was God at Sinai — 



IMPERIALISM SUPPRESSED. 267 

as the rightful sovereign of this nation? or shall this 
Government be simply a civil compact of the sovereign 
people for the common good, without personality or 
moral obligation? 

On these questions you are asked, nay, you will be 
compelled, to give an answer one way or the other by 
"stepping over the line" Either with the foul crew 
who are running the saloon, together with all those who 
are seeking to prolong its existence by giving it a lease 
of life and respectability, or against it and on the side of 
" God, and home, and native land." " Ye can discern the 
face of the sky, how is it ye cannot discern the signs of 
the times " ? 



CHAPTER XII. 

BINDING OF THE DRAGON FOR A THOUSAND 

YEARS. 

" And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the 
key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand : and he laid hold 
on the Dragon — the old serpent which is the devil and satan— and 
bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and 
shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations 
no more, until the thousand years should be finished ; after this he 
must be loosed for a little time" (Rev. 20-1, 2, 3). 

There is perhaps no prominent topic of the Apocalypse 
upon which there has been less difference of opinion 



268 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

and controversy than this of the binding of Satan. All 
seem to concur in this one thought, the old enemy of 
man is some day to be shut up and bound in chains in 
his own place for at least a thousand years and, perhaps, 
a great deal longer time, which latter is their devout 
wish. Their thoughts have dwelt with delight on that 
coming day — "the good time coming" — when the world 
will become the abode of the saints " with none to 
molest or make them afraid." No temptations, no in- 
ducements to fly the track, a happy, rolicking time in a 
sea of bliss, or in the midst of the sedater pleasures of 
an eternal Sabbath of rest. 

It seems a pity to waken one from such pleasant 
dreams, even though they be delusive. But truth is 
truth, and if these beautiful figments of the imagination 
have not a solid foundation in truth, the sooner they 
tumble the better. The Spirit says it is high time they 
tumbled. 

It is a well established rule of interpretation that 
where the scriptures give an explanation of their teach- 
ings in any department, as they do in numerous cases, 
that explanation is to be taken as authoritative as the 
"Word itself and holds good throughout. Proceeding on 
this self-evident rule let us look a little carefully at this 
passage, apparently so plain. 

There are six factors mentioned in this part of the 
vision ; two of them living agents, three material, and 
one, duration ; to wit, the angel and the dragon, the key, 
chain and abyss, and the thousand yeais. We have put 






IMPERIALISM SUPPRESSED. 269 



our own punctuation in the quotation for greater clear- 
ness, since punctuation is at best an arbitrary arrange- 
ment simply for convenience, and have left out the 
"pit v as being no part of the text, while abyss is the 
exact correlative of ahussos (the Greek word). It is 
also the equivalent of " the deep " when reference is had 
to the sea, which we can all readily understand. Here 
let us emphasise what we have said before and what 
must be apparent to everyone, that the Bible is essen- 
tially one book, written by one person — the Holy 
Spirit — by the hands of many amanuenses, and must 
therefore, of necessity, be one and indivisible, with 
unity of design, method in arrangement of its symbolisms, 
and determinate values throughout. Anyone who 
ignores this truth will make ''confusion worse con- 
founded*' in the interpretation of prophecy. 

There are two master minds and but two in the field 
for the control of this world — Christ and Satan (pre- 
supposing of course that God and Christ and the Holy 
Spirit are essentially one person. On the one side as 
in visible agents, are the Son of God. the angelic host 
and the saints in Paradise. On the other are Satan, the 
fallen angels and the spirits of the damned in Tartarus. 
As visible agents are spiritual and political Israel on the 
one side, and on the other the anti-Christian kingdoms 
and forces of this world. As the heavenly, spiritual, 
forces are not seen save as they are represented on this 
panoramic canvas which John saw passing before him, 
so the forces of Satan are seen only in the same way. 



270 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Neither Christ nor Satan are introduced anywhere 
throughout the Apocalypse save by symbolic persons 
and agencies. In the fifth chapter Christ is represented 
by " a Lamb as it had been slain," and in Chap 19-11 
by one on a white horse called Faithful and True ; pure 
symbols and nothing else. So throughout the bcok, 
Satan himself is never once introduced save by his 
agents — Imperial and Papal Borne — and these are 
symbolised by the Dragon and the beast, which repre- 
sent state and church governments, so that poor Satan 
has not even a symbol to show what he is. 

Again, if we can determine the value of any symbol 
in the earlier books of the Bible, we may be sure the 
same value attaches to the same symbol wherever found; 
for, otherwise, there would be confusion in determining 
what is meant, and the revelation would be useless and 
no revelation at all. This ought to be self-evident, yet 
the great body of expositors, with two or three excep- 
tions, have attempted solutions on the assumption, as 
one of their number has so innocently expressed it, 1 
" That each prophecy is to be explained by itself, and 
no interpretation is to be derived from a supposed uni- 
form meaning of symbols." " If the blind lead the 
blind, shall they not both fall into the ditcli ? " That is 
groping in the Catacombs without the guiding string. 
Is it any wonder that such are lost in a labyrinth of 
doubt and perplexity and give up in despair? 

The prophet himself all through the book gives us 

1 Dr. Butler's Lectures on the Apocalypse. 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 271 

plainly to understand by the use of the very language 
of symbols that his real meaning lies in the opposite 
direction from that which he says. Remember that 
John was writing under the direction of the Spirit about 
matters which it was His evident intention to reveal and 
at the same time to hide, so that the utmost ingenuity of 
man could not penetrate the secrets any further than 
He chose to reveal them, and yet keep alive a strong 
desire to know the hidden meaning of the whole. 

From an acknowledged rule of interpretation, that 
parts of a vision being symbolic and political necessi- 
tates the whole to be symbolic and political, we are war- 
ranted in assuming the whole book to be symbolic, and 
the burden of proof rests wtih th Dse who would have a 
literal reading, to show otherwise. 

In D.miel 7-3 we find four bcisfs coming out of the 
sea at the call of the four winds which act in Satan's 
dominions as the four living creatures act in John's vision 
— as ushers to introduce the various agents and actors (see 
chap. 6 ). Now the last beast was declared to be (Dan. 7- 
23) "the fourth kingdom upon the earth 1 ' "diverse from 
all the beasts that were before it," -'and it had ten horns *' 
(ver. 7). Thus we know to an absolute certainty that 
all beasts coming out of the sea are, in symbolic proph- 
ecy, the representatives of wicked, political kingdoms : 
that is settled once and for all. In Rev. 13-2 we have an- 
other beast coming out of the sea having all the character- 
istics of the first three beasts of Daniel's vision; viz., the 
leopard, the bear, and the lion. Thus we are able to 



272 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

connect the two visions by a link of no mean propor- 
tions, and this is further strengthened by the interpreta- 
tion which the angel gives in Rev. 17 chap.; all which 
points unmistakably to the Roman, political, kingdom in 
one form or other. 

Now John does not say where his Dragon came from 
nor, definitely, what power it represents. But in chap. 
13-2 he is represented as giving " his power and his 
seat and great authority " to the beast which is very 
plainly connected with Rome in chap. 17 and Dan. 7- 
23, 24. Thus we know that the Dragon of John's vision 
and the fourth beast of Daniel's, are symbols of the 
Roman, imperial power in different stages. In chap. 
12-7 we find " there was war in heaven ; Michael and 
his angels fought against the Dragon ; and the Dragon 
and his angels fought, and prevailed not ; neither was 
their place found any more in Heaven." 

Now does anyone for a moment suppose there was in 
Heaven an actual battle, as represented, between the 
pure spirits of Heaven and the degenerate spirits of 
hell ? for, observe, the same terms are used in ver. 9 as 
in chap. 20-2. Or was there even a battle between the 
angels and the power on earth represented by the 
Dragon ? Nothing of the kind in either case. How 
much more reasonable to suppose — what all the circum- 
stances of the case warrant us in doing — that it was 
simply a painting on heavenly canvas, unreal and 
visionary, yet standing out as a living picture to John of 
some of the mighty realisms of earth which should 



CLEANSING THE KINGDOM. 273 

transpire centuries after John and the stage trappings 
iiad ceased to be. Undoubtedly, Michael and his angels 
represent Israel and his hosts as the exponents on earth 
•of God's appointed forms of government, whether spir- 
itual or political; and the Dragon and his angels, as 
well, represent all political dominions opposed to God, 
•of which Roman Imperialism and the Papacy stand at 
the head. 

In the vision of Zechariah, chap. 3. we have another 
instance in the same line of symbolism, where Joshua 
represents spiritual Israel returning from Babylon and 
attempting to restore the worship of God at Jerusalem 
under great trials and difficulties. Opposed to him 
stands Satan representing Babylon, and hindering in 
every possible way not only their return but the re- 
building of Jerusalem. But in all cases it is through 
living agents, and, no matter what the language may be. 
Satan never appears in person or is recognised in the 
language of symbols otherwise than as himself a symbol 
of something ''earthly, sensual, devilish." 

So in the passage under consideration. The angel or 
messenger is one of Michael's angels which stand for 
Israel in one form or other, who lays hold of the Dragon 
of Imperialism in whatever kingdom or set of kingdoms 
it may present itself in opposition to Israel, and puts him 
" hors du combat" — "lays him out,' 1 as the phrase is. 
for a "thousand years, so that he will not be able to 
offer resistance to representative government or Repub- 
licanism for ages to come. Doubtless, a definite time is 



274 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

here put for an indefinite, and simply means a very long, 
time. 

In connection, we have the key and the chain. If 
they are unreal and only symbolic — as common sense y 
sanctified or unsanctified, must admit — by what rule of 
interpretation is one part of the vision, to say nothing of 
the same verse, to be taken as literal and the rest as sym- 
bolic ? Dear reader, it won't do ; better let the old 
shanty tumble arid build a new house on God's word 
and common sense. 

So of the abyss, translated in the authorised version 
"bottomless pit." The dragon and the beast, we have 
seen, came out of the sea; yet in chap. 11-7 the beast 
is said to have come out of the abyss, thus making the 
sea <and the abyss interchangeable terms, both being the 
home of monsters. Thus they became the symbols of 
vast multitudes of wicked and corrupt people out of 
whom came kings asserting their right to rule by force 
and might rather than by justice and truth, and then 
claiming that they ruled by divine right. 

That the sea has this meaning is apparent from chap. 
17-15 where it is said to John in explanation, " The 
waters which thou sawest" — the sea out of which the 
Dragon and the beast rose— " where the whore sitteth, 
are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." 
Thus we are not left in doubt as to the meaning of both 
sea and abyss. Now since both the Dragon and the 
beast came out of the sea and the abyss, what more 
natural thing in the world than when they are no longer 



CLEANSING THE KIXGD03I. 275 



needed in the drama, that they should return to the sea 
and the abyss which gave them birth. 

AVe have then as the substance of all this discussion 
these several truths as symbolised by the angel, the 
Dragon, the chain, and the abyss. These wicked. anti- 
Christian, powers, represented in the Xew Testament by 
Home — the successor to Babylon of eld as the foe of 
Israel — are surely coming to a time, now but a short way 
off, when they will be utterly destroyed and put out of 
the way in such a manner as to be harmless, like a caged 
and bound prisoner, for long ages to ccme. 

That this blow will be given by Israel, spiritual and 
political, there cannot be- a doubt. The one, operating 
by the quiet and imperceptible influences of religion 
and free institutions, has already caused the European 
world to deny this shameless assumption of the divine 
right of kings to rule without the consent of the people 
and without representation. The other, by a war with 
the whole host of those opposing kingdoms which repre- 
sent, substantially, the old ten kingdoms of Papal 
Rome and her ally of the civil power — at whose head 
stands Russia, self constituted champion of Imperial- 
ism and the Church — will be the agent under God for 
their complete overthrow. 

Into this war will be gathered all the long standing- 
feuds, animosities, disputed boundaries, and wounded 
pride of centuries for a final adjudication by the sword. 
" But they that take the sword shall perish by the sword," 
and there can be but one opinion with careful Bible 



276 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

students as to the side on which victory will perch. For 
this final struggle of the ages we have already shown 
they are preparing on the other side of the water with 
superhuman energy. But the struggle cannot come one 
whit sooner than God shall permit, for it must not only 
be a devastating war but an exhaustive one. To this 
end it will be delayed, notwithstanding all rumors from 
time to time to the contrary, until the terrible burden of 
expense shall so thoroughly exhaust the nations that 
when the struggle comes, which cannot be averted by 
turning to the right hand or to the left, they will be 
utterly ruined as opposing, war-like, governments. The 
"peace of Europe " will be assured. 

Already the annual deficit of France is two hundred 
millions of francs, and her public debt is stated to be 
seven billions of dollars. The tremendous burden of 
taxation necessary to support such vast armies of non- 
producers, will have a tendency to send thousands and 
millions to this country for relief, especially the Jews 
who are still God's people for a final purpose. Be it 
understood when we speak of the utter destruction of 
these kingdoms and of the Papacy we only speak of 
them as opposing principles of government and church 
polity. God's controversy is not so much with the 
peoples of those kingdoms as with the rulers and the 
ideas they represent. The people will indeed suffer 
much, but Imperialism and the Papacy will go down 
with a crash. The Papal church will no longer be 
Roman, for it will have no Head and no College of 



IMPERIALISM SUPPRESSED. 277 

Cardinals to elect and consecrate one. The church in 
this country will become the. American Catholic Church 
with all its vast properties and benevolent institutions 
ready, by wonderful outpourings of the Holy Spirit, to 
take its place with all other denominations of the 
Christian church for the furtherance of the kingdom of 
Christ on earth. 

Let those who are fearful of the ascendancy of that 
Church as a foreign, dictating, political intriguing church, 
quiet their fears, for God has wonderful things in store 
for us as a homogeneous people intent on doing his will 
in cleansing the land of the foul blot of whisky drinking 
and Sabbath desecration. 

The duration of the thousand years is entirely prob- 
lematical, since this term was one in common use by 
rabinical as well as classic writers, and is generally used 
as a round number for a long time. From the fact that 
there is no evening nor morning mentioned in connection 
with God's seventh day rest, it has been thought by some, 
as the work of creation ceased then and God's Sabbath 
has continued since that time, that the seventh age of 
the world into which we are about entering, will be the 
commencement of a Sabbath of peace and rest for the 
world — as compared with the past — which shall extend 
far beyond the definite term of a thousand years, into 
the longer term represented by a year of days and a 
day for a year in prophetic time ; equal to three hundred 
and sixty-five thousand years as the full term of the 
blessed reign of Christ on earth. 



278 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

Thus we have given what we fully believe to be a 
natural, scriptural and common sense interpretation of 
these much abused texts, and trust we have not done it 
so rudely or hastily as to leave a bad wound or an 
aching void. The salve of divine grace, and quickened 
movements for the rescue of the perishing in anticipa- 
tion of the " crowning day of glory by and by," ought to 
work in us a healthy condition of mind for a better per- 
ception of the truths of God's word respecting the coming 
kingdom. " Search the scriptures, for in them ye think 
ye have eternal life." We will now turn our attention 
to the long expected event — the coming of Christ in the 
clouds of heaven, which will be given in the next 
chapter. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BEHOLD, HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS TO TAKE 
THE KINGDOM. 

"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven : 
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and shall see the 
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a 
trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four 
winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. 24-30, 31 : 
Mark 13-26 : Lu. 21-27). 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 279 

" Behold he cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see him, 
and they also which pierced him : and all kindreds of the earth 
shall mourn because of him " (Eev. 1-7). 

" I saw in the night visions and, behold, one like the Son of 
man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of 
days, and they brought him near before him : and there was given 
him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations 
and languages, should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting 
dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which 
shall not be destroyed" (Dan. 7-13). 

The graphic descriptions in the first two quotations 
of Christ's coming in the clouds have so long been 
held to refer to the end of the world and the judgment 
of the wicked, that it may seem to partake of temerity 
to entertain a different opinion and run counter to the 
well established opinion of good and learned men for 
generations past. But truth is truth and must prevail 
though the heavens fall. Let us look at these strange 
declarations and gather if we can their full import, with 
this premise : 

We need often to be reminded of what we have here- 
tofore stated, that the Bible is an Oriental book, full of 
Oriental expressions and modes of thought which can- 
not be measured, without great care, by our English 
idioms and precise modes of speaking. Add to this a 
language of symbols with which we Occidentals are un- 
familiar, and we must not be surprised if many of the 
expressions of the prophetic parts of the Bible are of 
the most startling character to us and not easily com- 
prehended, though the real meaning is as simple as the 



280 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

alphabet. Witness Joel 2-30, 31 quoted by Peter on 
the day of Pentecost as applicable to that day ; and yet, 
literally, nothing of the kind was seen. 

Now, while the Bible is so plain in its general teachings 
that a " wayfaring man though a fool may not err 
therein," there are parts of it so intentionally hidden in 
symbolism that the most pious, learned, and acute, 
scholars, have been unable hitherto to give us any in- 
telligible interpretation that would harmonise all parts 
of the scriptures and agree with God's expressed plan 
for the government of the world. Especially is this 
true of the great epochs of the Church's history, and 
the culminating epoch of Christ's advent to take the 
proffered kingdom. When Daniel asked, What shall be 
the end of these strange disclosures made to him he was 
told, "Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up 
and sealed till the time of the end " (chap. 12-9 ). On the 
contrary, John was told not to seal his vision " for the 
time is at hand," already begun to be. Yet good men 
and true have been puzzling their heads from that day 
to this to find out the secrets of John's vision, and of 
Daniel's also, and are as wide of the mark as ever 
because, simply, God's time for making known his 
secrets had not come. 

All of these good and wise men have, however, an- 
swered God's purpose and have kept alive an interest in 
these things, and have furnished much food for thought 
and — work for the printers. The intent of scripture 
prophecy has never been to satisfy the idle curiosity of 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 281 

saint or sinner. Otherwise, wicked men would conspire 
to overthrow God's plans. Nor has God intended that 
any man, however wise, should find out the secrets of 
the future one moment sooner than suited His own wise 
purposes. 

The real intent of prophecy has been rather (a), by 
writing history beforehand to give an unanswerable ar- 
gument through all time for the divine origin of the 
Bible ; (b), to give such a vision of the future glory of 
the Church and the reign of Christ on earth as would 
give the recipients of the vision — and the Church as 
well, under the inspiration of an assurance of final 
victory — great encouragement and strength under severe 
trials and obstacles. Thus Elijah had visions of God which 
greatly strengthened him under terrible depression of 
spirits. Daniel had wonderful visions of the coming 
Messiah and the latter day glory, to encourage the re- 
turning exiles amid their trials. Paul had unutterable 
visions to encourage him amid his severe hardships, 
which lifted his soul so far above all his trials that he 
could even glory in tribulations, but his vision was of 
heavenly scenes and subjects — the only one recorded — 
and he was not able to say a word about it because it 
was incommunicable to mortal ears. 

John's vision was intended to encourage and elevate 
his soul in his lonely banishment in the isle of Patmos, 
where a minute description of the "mystery of iniquity " 
was revealed to him in its rise, its duration, and its 
miserable doom. It was intended also to portray the 



282 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

glory to which the Church should attain, upon the 
destruction of this an ti- Christian power, in her final 
victory over all enemies without and within. 

God has seen fit to hold the key to this "mystery" 
until close to the time of the end, when events have too 
far transpired to be affected one way or the other by 
wicked men ; while, by opening the mystery now, it may 
help thousands of God's people to clearer views of their 
God-given inheritance and lead them to greater exer- 
tions for the cleansing of the land. 

I have already shown that any hypothesis which pro- 
poses to limit or cut short the work of grace at this 
stage of the world's progress and Christian development, 
bears on the face of it serious evidences of not being the 
true one ; for if it is a judgment which includes a world 
in flames and a personal coming, which that event 
necessitates, then the work of redemption ends, leaving 
the work which Christ has undertaken to do not only 
not finished, but hardly begun. If we suppose a moral 
judgment — not a judicial one as at the end of the world 
— under the operation of a law which in itself is love, 
that shall enforce its penalties on every corrupt and 
obdurate soul with inexorable and relentless rigor, then 
we have a judgment in harmony with every principle of 
the divine government as revealed, and in accordance 
with sanctified common sense. 

By such a judgment as this the tables would be com- 
pletely turned upon Satan and his kingdom, virtually 
making him the destroyer of his own legions, a tarn of 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 283 

affairs which would go far to open the eyes of surviving 
sinners to the " true inwardness " of his designs, arid 
lead millions to the cross. Thus they will be able to 
see what they never could see before, that it has all 
along been only by the restraining power of Christ's love 
that such wholesale destruction has been hitherto de- 
layed. By the other mode there is an acknowledgment 
of defeat by leaving the world, the grand battle field of 
the ages, even though it be in flames, to the possession 
of Satan before the work of recovery is fairly begun. 

It is a miserable subterfuge and a begging of the argu- 
ment to claim that the infants are to be reckoned to 
swell the numbers of the saved. They are no trophies 
of redeeming grace. If they are, it were better far that 
we all died in infancy. The real victory lies in the 
grace that enables us in the strength of redeemed man- 
hood to subdue the arch enemy and tread him under our 
feet. Glory be to His dear name! But is there any 
other judgment spoken of in the scriptures, other than 
the final one, when the doom of the material world is 
finally come ? We think there is. 

In Daniel 7-10 it is declared, after describing the four 
beasts which rose out of the sea, the last of which 
represented the Roman power with its little horn of the 
papacy, that the "judgment was set and the books were 
opened." Nearly all expositors agree that this refers 
strictly to the judgment respecting these powers in 
their temporal kingdoms, and to nothing else. John, 
in Rev. 11-18, referring to these same powers and to the 



284 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

time when the fourth beast or power should receive its 
death blow, says : 

"And thy wrath is come and the time of the dead i that 
they should he JUDGED, and that thou shouldest give reward 
to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them 
that fear thy name, small and great ; and shouldest destroy 
them which destroy the earth." 

Yet the world stands and is likely to stand for untold 
ages to come. If John's vision and Daniel's relate to 
the same subject, as no one can deny, then the judgment 
referred to is the same in both cases and already passed. 

That these predictions refer exclusively to the 
temporal affairs of these kingdoms and to their destruc- 
tion as forms of government hateful to God and inimical 
to the best interests of men, ought to be apparent to 
every candid mind and lover of the truth. God wages 
relentless war against all who oppose the kingdom of 
his dear Son, which seeks to give the highest liberty to all, 
but is willing to sacrifice the life of that Son to save 
the subjects of wicked kingdoms to a better life and a 
better form of government. Wicked governments, like 
corporations, have no souls that can be judged in any 
other place but this world and on this present plane of 
conditions. To this judgment, sanctified common sense 
says, Amen ! 

What the u sign of the Son of man" is we do not pretend 
to know, and it is useless to guess about it, since the 
scriptures give no intimation of its character in any 

1 Dead in trespasses and sins ? 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 285 

way, and being yet future it will probably be revealed 
in due time to all patient souls who are "waiting for 
the consolation of Israel ". Matthew is the only one who 
speaks of it, and other scriptures make no allusion to 
anything of the kind. 

Not so however with the "trumpet of a great sound," 
for it is written in Isa. 27-13 : 

" And it shall come to pass in THAT DAY, that the great 
TRUIPET shall he blown, and they shall come whicn. were 
lost in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of 
Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mountain at 
Jerusalem."' 

"Cry aloud, spare not. lift thy voice like a trumpet, and 
show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob 
their sins'" (Isa. 48-1). 

Christ also says to his disciples, " When thou doest 
thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee." In 
Rev. 8-6 it is said : "And the seven angels which had 
the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.'' 
Now it is evident from all these passages that no material 
trumpet is in anywise intended, notwithstanding the 
fanciful interpretations which have been given by 
learned exegetes respecting Matt. 6-2. But what we do 
gather is this: any events, however trivial they may at 
the time appear to us, which have the effect of bringing 
about the predicted results, may be termed a trumpet 
and fills all the requirements of the case. 

Furthermore, we are absolutely certain beyond all 
successful contradiction, that the seven trumpets had 
finished their sounding at the time of the French Revo- 



286 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

lution. But who has heard their mighty reverberations 
along the sounding board of time, or given any special 
heed to the terrible • appeals of that reeling, crashing 
earthquake? From all this we gather that no other 
trumpets will sound than those which have already 
sounded, and that all these marvelous events will cul- 
minate at the end of this dispensation — "the consum- 
mation of the age" 1 — when Christ will take his kingdom, 
through spiritual Israel at the. hands of Qod .the, Father, 
for a reign on earth of unexampled prosperity. 

Of the same general character are the terms used for 
the gathering of " his elect from the four winds, from 
one end of heaven to the other," for the oldet prophets 
are full of the theme and sound it out in most explicit 
terms. 

" I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from 
the west ; I will say to the north, give up ; and to the south, 
keep not baek; bring my sons from far and my daughters 
from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by 
my name " (Isa. 43-6). 

God be praised for the luxury of living in this day 
when we see it come to pass that spiritual Israel is at 
last, at the end of the ages, occupying the "place of her 
own" in the New World, created and kept in store for 
her, and that she has created for herself, under the guid- 
ing hand of God, "a new heaven" and "habitations of 
peace " upon the mountains of Israel, " the high mount- 
ain" ol our God. The "trumpet" has indeed sounded, 

1 Matt 13-39, 40:24-3. 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 287 

and Israel in all lands and Judah also, with the oppressed 
of all nations, are listening to the sound and are flock- 
ing " as clouds and as doves to their windows " to this 
New World. 

Yet the Church of Christ has not heard the sound, 
though moved by a mighty, divine, impulse since the 
French Revolution, to enter upon her Christ-appointed 
mission for the recovery of the world. Is it because 
" your hearts are overcharged with surfeiting and drunk- 
enness, and cares of this life " ? We plead with our read- 
ers to look into this matter, "lest that day come upon 
you unawares, for as a snare shall it come upon all them 
that dwell upon the face of the whole earth." We plead 
with you for redoubled exertions for those who are liv- 
ing carelessly and dwelling at ease; friends, neighbors, 
relatives and dear ones, who will be opposed to his 
coming and exposed to the coming storm, for the king- 
dom mast be cleansed of "all things that cause stum- 
bling, and of them that do wickedly" (Matt. 13-41). 
Be yourself a trumpet. "Cry aloud! spare not; lift up 
thy voice with strength ; say to the cities of Israel, 
; Behold your King,' the Prince of Judah, Son of 
David." 

" And every eye shall see him and they also that 
pierced him! " If no one has ever heard with mortal ear 
the "great sound of the trumpet," neither is there any 
reason to believe that any mortal eye will see Him until 
the final judgment. Certainly not at the end of this 
dispensation or "consummation of the age" when he is 



288 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

coming "to be admired in all them who believe," whose 
coming and whose " glory shall be revealed in us." We 
shall see Him for whom our souls have longed in his 
love and by his indwelling presence; and even in the 
" overflowing scourge " we shall see abounding love in 
protection to his own true disciples, for the '- Consump- 
tion decreed shall overflow with righteousness" But 
there shall be confusion and dismay to all those who 
have been reckoned from the day of his crucifixion to 
this present, as "they who pierced him." 

If a closer connection than this is desired, we reply: 
if the high priest could, from the world of spirits, see 
the "Son of man on the right hand of power," as Christ 
said he should, until He comes to take the proffered 
kingdom, surely he can see Him from the same place 
" coming in the clouds" — and so also can "they which 
pierced him" — without supposing a personal, visible, 
coming. As to those who shall " mourn " because of 
him, we have sufficiently indicated in this and previous 
chapters what will be the cause of their mourning. But 
Zechariah speaks of a class who "shall look on me 
whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for him as a 
father mourneth for his only son" (chap. 12-10). Of 
these it may be said that our interpretations give 
abundant scope for the realisation of all such promises, 
in the wonderful outpourings of the Spirit upon the 
house of Judah, now very near at hand, upon whom is 
coming a " spirit of prayer and supplication," with the 
above result. 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 289 

"In THAT DAY there shall he a. fountain opened to the 
house-of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin 
and uneleanness. Audit shall eome to pass that in all the 
land, saith the Lord. TWO PARTS therein shall he eut off and 
die : but the THIRD PART shall be left therein. And I will 
bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as 
silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried : they shall 
call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say. "It is my 
people': and they shall say, "The Lord is my God"" iZec. 
13-1,8,9). 

Here is no indication of a burning world, but there is 
abundant evidence and cause for great mourning, with 
the happiest results to follow : — AVe will now take up 
the main point. 

"Behold, he comefh with clouds, in power and great 
glory.''' There are a number of these passages which 
speak of His coming in the clouds, which have taken 
their coloring and interpretation from the scene at the 
ascension of our Lord from Olivet, and from our con- 
stant tendency to attach a literal mean in g where nothing 
of the kind is intended. We can readily understand by 
long usage what Christ meaos when he says, " I am the 
vine, ye are the branches " ; " I am the good Shepherd"; 
" This is my body broken for you, and my blood shed 
for you"; yet we are unable to understand when he 
says. " Ye shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds 
of heaven with power and great glory," because of the 
declaration of the angels as recorded in Acts 1-11. Let 
us look at it a moment and see if we can make out what 
it really means. 

There is evidently no symbolism or metaphor about 



290 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

the statement, simply a plain matter of fact that, "while 
they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him 
out of their sight" ; a very natural circumstance indeed, 
and one very likely to happen to anyone rising far 
above the earth, especially in a cloudy day. Observe, 
it is merely an adventitious circumstance which none of 
the evangelists thought worthy of record if, indeed, they 
saw either the cloud or heard the voice of the angels. 
The great fact to them was, that He whom they loved 
was taken from them bodily and " carried up into 
heaven." Their tearful eyes saw nothing further. 
Other accessories were of small importance, not even the 
declaration of the angels. Whether they all saw and 
heard or not matters little. Luke records it, probably, 
from their lips and that is sufficient, but what do the 
angels say ? 

"This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into 
heaven" (Acts 1-11). 

Which simply means, that as he ascended and was lost 
to view in a cloud, so, when " the Lord himself shall 
descend from heaven with a shout" (2 Thess. 4-16), he 
will in all probability appear to sight coming out of a 
cloud, especially if, as we have said, it shall be a cloudy 
day ; and inasmuch as no time is set for this occurrence, 
the whole trend of scripture puts it at the final winding 
up of the affairs of this world. If anything more can be 
made out of this oft-quoted and misapplied passage, our 
readers are welcome to it. 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 291 

If, on the other hand, we can show any passage or 
passages where symbolism is evidently nsed, which give 
a natural interpretation for clouds other than as objects 
of nature, we have proven our position in all the pas- 
sages relating to his coming in the clouds, for all these 
passages are in connection with other evident symbol- 
isms. As heretofore remarked, it is a rule of interpreta- 
tion that the same symbol, whose value is once deter- 
mined, bears the same character throughout all prophecy. 
We have already shown the moral character of the 
trumpet and the call of the elect from the four winds, 
which place the passage in Matthew at once in the cate- 
gory of symbolic prophecy with those of John and 
Daniel which are confessedly so. 

Now in Rev. 11-12 it is said of the two witnesses, 
" They ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their ene- 
mies beheld them."' Will it for a moment be believed 
that the Bible or the Church or any line of witnesses 
were taken up bodily to heaven in a cloud and seen by 
their enemies? Of course not. It means that the 
Bible, as the true witness of God against an ungodly 
world, was suddenly lifted from its dead condition in 
the Papal world, as we have already shown, to new life 
and prominence and great vigor amongst men, and ad- 
vanced rapidly in favor and circulation ; which is precisely 
what we have seen since the Papacy and Imperialism 
received their death-blow in the Revolution of 1794. 

In speaking of those who should come from all quar- 
ters of the globe to this latter-day home of Israel. Isaiah 



292 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

says, " Who are these that fly as a cloud and as doves 
to their windows" (60-8). So in Ezekiel's vision, as we 
have shown, he uses a vast cloud to signify the great 
Scythian horde of people who entered Asia and envi- 
roned Israel. In Xenophon's Anabasis is a very fine 
description of the approach of an army of horsemen 
across the plains, under the figure of vast rolling clouds. 
They are of frequent use by classic writers, as typical 
of vast bodies of men. Paul says, "seeing then that we 
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,'" 
etc. From all this we gather that his " coming in the 
clouds " is unmistakably connected with large bodies of 
people who will be intensely interested in his coming, 
through whom and by whom it will undoubtedly be 
brought about. 

There are several passages where it is positively as- 
serted, without symbolism or circumlocution, that Christ 
will come and do a definite work, and yet no one thinks 
of attributing a personal coming to the language. To 
the churches of Asia, John was instructed to write the 
warnings of God against the gross errors and worldli- 
ness which were gradually creeping into them and 
threatening to undermine their faith and vital connec- 
tion with Christ. These warnings are most explicit, and 
couched in such terms as these: — 

" Repent, and do the first works or else I will come unto 
tliee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place " 
(Rev. 2-5). 

Nearly the same words were addressed to the churches 






HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 293 

of Pergamos and Philadelphia; while to the church of 
Sardis he wrote thus : — 

"If therefore thou shalt not watch I Avill come on thee as 
a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will conie upon 
thee." 

After the sounding of the seventh trumpet (1794), 
and commencing from that point the pouring out of the 
six vials of wrath (but before the seventh is poured out) 
John says of Christ : — 

"Behold, I eonie as a thief. Blessed is he that watch eth 
and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see 
his shame " (Bev. 16-15). 

There is no shout, no "clouds," nothing to distin- 
guish this last coming from the visitations to the seven 
churches, yet in point of time it is evidently connected 
very closely with the "coming in the clouds'" in Matt. 
24-30. 

It is clear enough to us now that this " coming " to 
the churches of Asia was no personal coming at all, 
but, rather, that he would come upon them in judgment 
and would wipe them out of existence unless they re- 
pented. Furthermore, though the language was so ex- 
plicit that he would "come quickly," we know as a his- 
torical fact that there was not only no personal coming, 
but that it was more than five hundred years before 
nearly all of them were finally destroyed by the Saracens 
whose shibboleth was, ' ; The Koran or the Sword.'' If 
there is no personal coming intended in these explicit 



294 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

statements, then we may fairly assume that there is no 
personal coming intended in the passages quoted at the 
head of this chapter and similar ones, in the absence of 
any direct statement to the contra^, with other accesso- 
ries such as appertain to his final coming to judge the 
world. 

Another consideration lies in the fact that all of God's 
great moral epochs are of a quiet, unostentatious charac- 
ter, of no great significance to the world at large at 
the time of their occurrence, but mighty in their results 
upon the destinies of men as we look at them now from 
the standpoint of God's word and history. Political 
epochs of history have always been marked by tumult, 
revolution, blood and suffering, to a greater or less ex- 
tent, and will continue to be so marked until the last 
great battle for supremacy shall result in 1he extinction 
of Imperialism and the Papacy before the reign of 
"peace on earth, good will to men." 

Not so is it with the great moral epochs of God-in- 
Christ's government. The call of Abraham ; the found- 
ing of the royal line of David for an eternal kingship 
and kingdom ; the advent of Christ as a " root out of dry 
ground," and the second coming of Christ, the hope of 
the ages, to take the voluntary offering of the kingdom 
which the " God of Heaven " has already set up, may all 
be classed as great moral epochs whose character and 
advent are marked by quiet, unostentatious, tread, un- 
noticed by the great mass of the people, but whose re- 
sults are mighty and far reaching for the good of men. 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 295 

" None of the wicked shall understand, but the icise 
shall understand^ (Dan. 12-10). 

We are now prepared to take up the quotation from 
Daniel, at the head of this chapter. Here we see the 
same metaphor or symbol u of clouds" used as in the 
other instances, and He is coming to take "glory and 
dominion and a kingdom." But who accompany him 
and bring him before " one of ancient days " ? Evidently 
the people represented by the " clouds." But who gives 
him the kingdom ? This is not so apparent until we have 
considered for a moment who is meant by "one of an- 
cient days." From the description given in verses 9 and 
10 it has been for a long time held by many good and 
learned expositors that the Almighty is meant. Yet if 
we look back to the vision of Ezekiel (chap. I) we shall 
see a striking likeness between the two visions in several 
particulars. 

In the vision of Daniel we see " one of ancient days " 
seated, evidently, on His throne, with the fiery flame 
about him and "his icheels as burning fire; thousand 
thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times 
ten thousand stood before him." In Ezekiel (verses 
26-27) we have the throne 

" As the appearanee of a sapphire stone, and upon the 
throne the appearance of A MAX above upon it: and I saw 
as the color of amber, as the appearance of FIRE round 
about within it, from the appearanee of his loins even 
upward, and from the appearanee of his loins even down- 
wards, I saw as it were the appearanee of FIRE, and it had 
brightness round about." 



296 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

From the fifteenth verse we have a description of the 
wheels and their peculiar manner of moving. The living 
creatures are wanting in Daniel's vision for the reason 
that in Ezekiel's vision they stood as the symbols of 
Israel, as heretofore shown, but at that time rebellious 
Israel as we learn from chap. 2-3. In Daniel's vision the 
time is carried forward to the latter days when rebellious 
Israel has become spiritual Israel and obedient to the 
Divine will to such an extent that God can work through 
them to the accomplishment of his purposes respecting 
the seating of Christ on the throne of his father David, 
as it is written : 

" Thy people offer themselves willingly in the days of thy 
power, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morn- 
ing. The torn at thy right hand hath striken through kings 
in the day of his wrath. The places are full of dead bodies. 
He shall strike through the head over a wide land" (Ps. HO-3). 

Consequently we find the "living creatures" of Eze- 
kiel reproduced in Daniel, no longer as a symbol but by 
Israel herself, a great and mighty host, " ten thousand 
times ten thousand," under the synonym of "one of 
ancient days" which, in a slightly different form, was a 
favorite expression of the older prophets when speaking 
of the early days of Israel's devotion to God. See Isa. 
51-9: 44-7: 24-23; Ps. 44-1. There can be no question 
but that God is the " power behind the throne," but the 
agent through whom He works in all the ages on this 
earth is his own beloved Israel under her, pet name, 
"one of ancient days." The scriptures are filled with 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 297 

tender expressions of God's love and tender regard for 
his " ancient " people. 

It is to be remarked that Christ himself does not 
appear in the vision at all bnt by the simile of " one like 
a son of man." Neither one nor the other of the God- 
head ever appears in person in symbolic prophecy, as 
we have before shown, so that it is absurd to take this 
vision of Daniel's as representing a personal coming of 
Christ " in the clonds of heaven." 

Simply stated, then, the vision stands thns : Christ, 
seated at the right hand of the Father, is induced by the 
voluntary choice of the people under the special leadings 
of the Father, to become a candidate for the earthly 
throne of David, precisely as God was chosen in 
" ancient days " to be king over Israel, though after- 
wards rejected for Saul, according to the manner of the 
nations about them. When thus presented to the 
people, just as he is being presented to-day, there will be 
given to him in the near future : 

"Dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, na- 
tions, and languages, should serve him : his dominion is an 
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his 
kingdom that which shall not he destroyed." 

This harmonises all parts of the vision and agrees 
perfectly with events which are transpiring to-day in a 
most remarkable manner, as we pointed out in the last 
chapter. On which side of the line are you going to 
be, my brother, when this question is put to you ? Dare 
you say by your vote, " Away with him ! away with 



298 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

him I"***" We will not have this man to rule 
over us " ? As you vote to-day on the question of the 
cleansing of the land, so the chances are that you will 
vote on the higher questions of the Sabbath, and Christ 
in the organic law. 

The error of, the commonly received interpretation 
which represents God as having already given Christ 
his spiritual kingdom at his first advent, is seen in 
several particulars. It places the giving of the kingdom 
before any of, the important events of the vision had 
begun to transpire, while this presentation to " one like 
a son of man" is after all preceding kingdoms had been 
cast down, which id. just the direction in which events 
are now moving with sure and swift steps. Again, any 
kingdom to be acceptable to Christ must be a voluntary 
offering of loving, obedient, subjects or people, and he 
will have no other. He was offered a kingdom at his 
first advent, but it was not the kind he wanted and he 
refused it. 

We have already seen that God, the Judge and 
Executor, lost the allegiance of the world at the begin- 
ning and, consequently, has no spiritual dominion to 
give, while it is the special province of Christ to win the 
kingdoms to himself and present them to the Father, 
" that God may be all in all." God is at liberty to work 
by all material and political forces to make Christ's 
people — already >von as individual subjects — "to offer 
themselves willingly in the day of thy power." All the 
actual events, as far as they have transpired and seem 



HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS. 299 

on the eve of being realised, fit so completely the con- 
ditions of the vision throughout, that the conclusion is 
inevitable for the above interpretation and for no other. 
There is no sort of appropriateness in styling God the 
Father as "one of ancient days," since he is a spirit 
" without beginning of days or end of years," while in 
respect of Israel the term is exceeding appropriate and 
warranted by scripture. 

This " coming in the clouds of heaven " refers, then, 
in no instance to a personal coming with natural clouds, 
but to a spiritual coming to take especial charge 
of this God- given land and government through his 
servants, men fearing God, loving righteousness and 
hating iniquity. It will be a coming so quiet and in the 
common course of events as to require the utmost watch- 
fulness to perceive its true significance. 

Among the causes which have led to wide spread 
apathy on this subject — although we rejoice to know 
that vast numbers are giving earnest heed to it — may be 
mentioned the extravagant calculations which began to 
be made by Wm. Miller forty-three years ago, and which 
were continued by others for some years after. The 
unwarranted and unscriptural accompaniments of those 
predicted times had a very lively tendency to throw the 
whole subject into disrepute and sontempt. That was 
indeed a " midnight cry " eminently adapted to rouse 
the attention of the whole land to the all important 
theme, and was evidently so intended of God. He sent 
it forth in just that shape for good and wise reasons, 



300 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

leaving us to detect the fallacies and heed the 
call. That was more of a " blast of Gabriel's horn " 
than we will ever hear again, unless this unpretentious 
book shall serve as a " last call" to many. 

Another reason is found in the excessive spirit of 
worldliness which has crept over the Church "as a 
snare," which has led to the commonly expressed 
thought, " If we are prepared for death we are prepared 
for his coming," when the probability is that we are 
really prepared for neither. The two events have not 
the remotest connection. Another reason is found in 
a general expectation of something marvelous in con- 
nection with the return of the Jews to Palestine, such as 
a complete topographical and geologic change in that 
land preparatory thereto. By these and other causes we 
are likely to cheat ourselves out of a realising sense of 
the glorious patrimony which our Heavenly Father has 
provided for us. The prophets of twenty-five centuries 
ago saw it and were glad. Yet millions of Christians will 
continue to look for something marvelous in the dim 
future, so near and yet so far. 

"O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the 
high mountain ; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift 
up thy voice with strength ; lift it up, he not afraid ; say unto 
the cities of Judah, Behold your Ood" (Isa. 40-9). 

"For the government shall he upon his shoulder: and his 
name shall he called * * * Prince of Peace; of the increase 
of his government and of peace there shall he no end, upon the 
throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it. and to 
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth 
even forever. The zeal of the IiOrd of Hosts will perform 
this" (Isa. 9-6, 7 ; see also Jer. 33-3 to 6 ; Xaike 33-29, 30). 



THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 301 



"The L<ord Hath taken away thy judgments, he hath east 
out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the lord, is in the 
midst of thee : thou shalt not see evil any more *' tZeph. 3-15). 

The joyous festivities of the marriage supper for which 
the 4i midnight cry" was uttered, call for life not death, 
and the above quotations and hundreds of others tell 
the same story. But as we have much more to say on 
this same line of thought we reserve it for the next 
chapter on the millennial glory. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 

" In that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for 
an ensign of the people: to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest 
shall be gterious" ilsa. 11-10). 

"And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy 
bread and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst 
of thee" (Ex. 23-25). 

"And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that 
dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity " (Isa. 23-24). 

M He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God shall 
wipe away tears from all faces ; and the rebuke of his people 
shall he take away from off all the earth : for the Lord hath spoken 
it." "And I will rejoice in Jerusalem" — habitations of peace — 
" and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more 



302 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



heard in her, nor the, voice. of crying" (Isa. 25-8: 65-19; see. .also 
Rev. 7-17:21-14). , , • 

'For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor 
perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside 
thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him" (Isa. 
64-4). "-' f • ■ •>• 

" There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor nn old man 
that hath not filled his days : for the child shall die an hundred years 
old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed" 
(Isa. 65-20.) 

" I will also make thine officers peace and thine exactors 
righteousness " (Isa. 60-17). 

Having by anticipation seated Christ on the throne of 
David to continue a King forever, it becomes our pleas- 
ant privilege to gather from the scriptures some of the 
beneficent results to be derived from his reign. Happily, 
God has not left us entirely to faith and imagination 
respecting the things of the kingdom, but has filled the 
scriptures to overflowing with portraitures of the man- 
sions of rest which he has prepared for his people in 
the purified earthly kingdom. On the other hand, 
nothing at all has been said of Heaven, save an occa- 
sional reference to it as a place of holy angels and per- 
fect bliss. Certainly no symbol could illustrate it, and 
no language could intelligibly portray it. 

Paul had a look into it and heard unutterable things 
which he says it was "not possible for a man to utter," 
and we are satisfied to let it alone, since the Father has 
revealed nothing definite respecting it. If we can live 
to see the installation of the glorious reign of Christ on 



\ 



THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 303 

earth, and witness but the commencement of the wonder- 
ful things which are written concerning the " place of 
their own" from which Israel shall "move no more," we 
shall certainly think that Heaven has begun here below 
and say, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou 
hast prepared before the face of all people" (Luke 2- 
30). 

Hitherto the world has been filled with misery and 
woe growing out of wars, oppression and bloodshed, as 
the result of man's willful disobedience and constant 
refusal to submit himself to rightful authority, and, be- 
lieving himself able to remedy all evils by offering to 
God sacrifices of his own choosing, he has gone about 
seeking his own pleasure in his own way rather than in 
God's way. Not only did man find unhappiness, sorrow, 
and death, as the result of his willful and wicked 
course, but the good old age of the patriarchs, reach- 
ing to nearly a thousand years, was gradually reduced 
until God stayed the unnatural and premature decay 
and limited man's life in its downward tendency to 
three score years and ten; otherwise, I doubt if there 
would have been any left to-day to tell the tale of man's 
fall. 

With man's reduced physical powers from those of a 
giant to almost a dwarf ; with his intellectual powers, 
capable of grappling with the mightiest problems of 
physical science, darkened and contracted to a minimum ; 
with all his instincts and appetites brutalised, how could 



304 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

it be otherwise but that the seeds of disease should 
bring a full harvest of all kinds of sickness, and that 
tears, not joy, should reign through the ages. 

To save the race of men from utter annihilation and 
lift them to a higher plane of living, God removed 
Abraham from among his kindred of Mesopotamia into 
Canaan, whence we have followed his descendants, in 
previous chapters, until one of their number, God-born, 
is seated on the throne. The command had already gone 
forth for the cleansing of the land of all those who had 
caused the people to stumble and of all that did iniquity, 
and now, at his coming or just before it, the judgment 
had been given for law to take its course among the 
wicked and incorrigible, which results in a " survival of 
the fittest." They had laid themselves open to pesti- 
lence by their corrupt lives, and now, obstinate to the last, 
they are swept away as with the besom of destruction, 
and their record is left to "point a moral or adorn a 
tale." Let us by anticipation stand in that day, now 
but a few years away, and note just a few of the results. 

A race of people fittest to live are in possession of 
the land after its cleansing. Not all are saints by any 
means, as the usual hypothesis of the new heavens and 
the new earth necessitates, but they are Christian men 
and women whose faith has lifted them above the waves, 
and enabled them to ride the storm into calm waters. 
Others are there who, by Christian education and the 
prayers of Christian parents, had kept themselves free 
from the grosser sins, and in whom a conviction of the 






THE MILLENNIAL GLOKY. 305 

terrible nature of sin has been produced by the solemn 
scenes through which they have passed, and they are 
now ready to lay themselves and their all upon the altar 
and enter the service of the King. Wonderful outpour- 
ings of the Spirit have been witnessed during the pro- 
cess of cleansing the land, and the Church has been 
quickened into a new life, so that it is not difficult now 
to hear the voice of the Spirit, saying, "This is the way 7 
walk ye in it." 

The smiles of Heaven and the benediction of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, are upon 
all those who have come through the fiery ordeal, blood 
washed and cleansed, or prepared for cleansing, in the 
"fountain opened to the house of David and to the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness/' Is 
it to be wondered at, then, that Christians have clearer 
views of God's protecting care of his people, or that their 
faith and trust are greatly strengthened, and that they 
have come into closer relations with Him whom their 
souls love, and that there comes into the soul such 
experiences of nearness and hiding in Him, that they 
realise now as never before that " his rest is glorious ? " 

A different atmosphere is about them on every side. 
The themes of Christ and his kingdom are now the sub- 
jects of conversation rather than the gossip of society, 
or about the last play at the theater, or the last prima 
donna at the opera. The sublimp prophecies of God's 
Word, which have found such wonderful fulfillment in 
their day, illustrating God's loving care through all the 



306 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

centuries, excite in them the deepest love and reverence, 
and become without effort the topic of every gathering 
by the wayside, in the home, and at the public assembly. 
All are eager to learn of some larger experience, some 
deeper insight into the hidden mysteries of God's love 
as revealed in Christ. None is unwilling now to talk 
with the unconverted, or to plead with them to yield at 
once to the blessed invitation, but each will vie with the 
other in hastening to tell the glad story of a Saviour's 
love, and " all thy children shall be taught of the Lord." 
There is little need of detailing to any extent the 
happy results which will flow, from the very commence- 
ment of the reign of righteousness on the earth. The 
scriptures are filled to overflowing with the blessed 
pictures of joy, peace, and happiness, which cluster 
around this objective point of all revelation — the taking 
of the kingdom by the Son of David. We may be sure 
that a different moral atmosphere will prevail throughout 
the land. No more shall we hear of the dastardly at- 
tack, or the vile intrigue for entrapping the unsuspect- 
ing and the innocent, " for there shall nothing hurt nor 
destroy in all my holy mountain." The voice of cursing 
will no more be heard in the streets. The hot words, 
the angry blow and the deadly bullet, will be things of the 
past " because the accuser of our brethren is cast down," 
and the saloon, his greatest earthly agency, is relegated 
to hell from whence it came. What a history it will 
be when written out ! What loathing of sin and of all 
that pertains to the service of Satan, by whose inspira- 



THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 307 

tion and agency the horrible work of the past has been 
wrought out ! 

But why repeat the story which everyone's memory 
will be able to supply of this terrible nightmare of war 
and raids on defenceless villages ; of murders and rob- 
beries ; of cruel desertions and suicides, and the almost 
innumerable crimes with which the daily papers all 
over the country are now filled ? 

It is not worth the while to stop and show the utter 
fallacy of the theories which have heretofore been 
broached by tji'ous, acute, and learned men, respecting 
the "new heavens and the new earth" and the reign of 
righteousness without temptation, that is promised to 
follow. It has been, perhaps, not their fault that they 
saw no clearer the secrets of revelation, for, doubtless, 
God "hid these things from the wise and prudent that 
he might reveal them unto babes/' They did the best 
they could and that was all God wanted, and just what 
he wanted through all the ages, and it was for just such 
results that the predictions were put in the enigmatic or 
symbolic form. 

Our fault will be if we continue to take these blind 
efforts for a conclusion, and refuse to accept a plain, 
common sense solution which fills all the required con- 
ditions of prophetic record. We propose, therefore, to 
show from present developments of the grace of Christ, 
that all the requirements contained in the scripture 
quotations at the head of this chapter, with all others 
not quoted and pertaining to this subject are, even now, 



308 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

an accomplished fact, or in easy process of fulfillment. 
Glory be to the name of Jesus ! If we can show that 
these things are commenced in any small degree, we 
have God's authority and mode of speaking for saying 
the thing is done. Please remember that. If it is true 
now, some years before Christ actually takes the throne 
what may we not expect when that happy event 
transpires. 

Before entering directly on the subject proposed, let 
me say that all of God's relations with this world in its 
physical and moral advancement have ever been on the 
progressive plan of gradual development, and we have 
not the shadow of proof that He will not continue on the 
same plan for ages upon ages to come. No one now 
believes that this world was made in six literal days, but 
that it was in process of development through countless 
ages. In fact, we now see that the Bible itself shows 
the same fact, and states three things only to have been 
an actual creation, viz., matter, life, and man. Matter 
and life were in their lowest original forms, and the 
world and everything in it were wrought out from these 
by the law of development, or evolution, if you please, 
to their present form and conditions, save man, who was 
unique in his creation, being made in the image and 
likeness of the three persons of the Godhead, and placed 
upon the earth, when it was fitted for him, as the last 
crowning act of creation. 

There is nothing generally irruptive and sudden in the 
whole development of creation ; only in the finality of a 



THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 309 

world may we make a possible exception. What is true 
in the physical world is true also in the moral world, as 
we have abundant reason to know. We may rest assured, 
then, that the present order of natural and moral law 
will be observed throughout. Any victories gained over 
sin and natural propensities, over Satan and his works, 
over bodily infirmities and disease, over reduced vitality 
in the ages of men and even over the terrors of death, 
will be wholly and unmistakably by the faith of the Lord 
Jesus, on this present plane of conditions. 

"And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even 
onr Uaith" (John 5-4). 

No Christian man or woman will deny that lack of 
faith is the great and essential need of the Church 
to-day, for we hear continually this prayer, "O Lord, 
increase our faith." How often are we met by requests 
for prayer for those who have lost their faith; often 
coming from the persons themselves, while thousands 
have made shipwreck of their faith and have gone back 
to the world. Well may we ask, what is the cause of 
this, and where lies the difficulty ? 

In great measure, doubtless, this state of thing has 
grown out of the teachings of the Church herself, strange 
as it may appear. So much stress has been laid upon 
works as a necessary adjunct of faith, that it has grown 
almost into an axiom, " If you want anything done, go 
and do it. If you wish your prayer answered, answer it 
yourself ?' Is a church in need of a pastor, a committee 



310 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

is chosen to canvass the country and the candidates, 
and on their own judgment a " call" is given, and almost 
superhuman exertions are immediately commenced to 
accomplish the desired purpose. Does the church need 
funds for any enterprise of mission work, immediately 
a Fair is called for with all its concomitants of a post- 
office, a fish pond, a grab-bag, and, perhaps, a lottery 
out and out; or a cake, sugared over with frosting and a 
ring inside, for which shares are sold in the interest of 
the pastor or some favorite elder or deacon. 

Is anyone sick among you, let him send for — the 
elders? Oh, no ; that would be the heighth of presump- 
tion and the man might die. Send for the physician ; that 
is help that can be seen and felt. The maxims of the 
world have also been largely adopted by Christians, 
which seem to have Avrought a complete change in the 
simplicity of the " faith once delivered to the saints " 
to such an extent that little is left in the Church, save in 
one's own exertions, by which to overcome the world. 

Now, in these closing hours of this sixth age of the 
world, God is bringing back the old-time faith in such 
men as George Muller, Dr. Cullis, D. L. Moody, Wil- 
liam Quarrier of Glasgow, and a host of others who 
have determined to take God at his word and stand out 
upon his promise, come life or come death. As a result of 
this confidence, God is answering their prayers in a most 
remarkable manner and giving all needed funds for 
great benevolent work, health and strength to the sick 
and diseased, souls to those who are searching for them, 



THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 311 

.and to all who thus trust Hint such a divine influx of joy 
and love and forgetfulness of self as baffles all descrip- 
tion. 

Christians are being led to realise as never before that 
the past of their lives has been spent in wanderings in 
the wilderness of Sinai, and that they have never yet 
entered into the promised land of rest, but are hoping 
for that good time in the dim future "on the other side 
of Jordan." But many are beginning to realise that 
the real Jordan, as well as the Red Sea, exist in the 
midst of this present plane of conditions, and not at the 
close of life ; that the laud of promise is just before 
each one and may be entered by faith at any time when 
we are ready to cut away from our visible " base of sup- 
plies " and enter the enemies' country to clean them 
out, root and branch, with a promise and a "ram's 
horn." 

No more than with Israel of old is it a folding of 
hands in the enjoyment of God-given homes and vine- 
yards and fruitful fields, for as they of the olden time 
did some of their hardest fighting after they entered the 
land of rest, so modern Israel of the " advance guard " 
have their conflicts and struggles with Satan and his 
hosts. But the victory is an easy one now, because they 
overcome "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word 
of their testimony." By unmistakable signs God is 
calling his people to a higher plane of living than ever 
before, and demanding of us a complete consecration of 
self and all that we hive to his service. "He that seek- 



312 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

eth to save his life shall lose it, but he that will lose his 
life for my sake shall find it." 

The number of those who are thus willing to step out 
on the promises of God and cut loose from all that binds 
them to the world, is becoming more and more numer- 
ous every day, and, as the years roll on, the number will 
be swelled to " an innumerable company which no man 
could number." This movement of " Holiness unto the 
Lord" is of the Spirit, preparatory to the time of trial 
that is certainly coming upon the earth to " try every 
man's work of what sort it is." If, hereafter, " holiness 
unto the Lord " is to " be written upon the bells of the 
horses," we must certainly begin by writing it upon our 
own hearts and lives. 

Let us rejoice that the dawning of a better day is at 
hand. Already the chariot wheels of the Almighty are 
faintly heard speeding over the plain for the "manifes- 
tation of the sons of God." A shaking among the "dry 
bones " of the valley is heard; the faint rumblings of the 
"first resurrection" are in the air; the graves of those 
old martyrs for the iruth, those who counted not their 
lives dear to them for the testimony of Jesus, and ihose 
only, are beginning to crackle under the mighty impend- 
ing voice of the Son of God when he shall cry with a 
loud voice, " Elijah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Paul, Peter, John, 
and the rest of the martyrs, come forth I Enter into my 
people and revive in them the old-time faith that would 
brave a kingdom; enter the lion's den; endure indigni- 
ties, and go to a martyr's doom in defence of the truth; 



THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 313 

go to the mouth of the fiery furnace, yea, info it for the 
testimony of Jesus." 

This is the faith we want, and this is the faith we are 
to have by the first resurrection, for which Christ him- 
self has given us the key of interpretation in that memo- 
rable conversation with his disciples respecting the 
mission of John, and the general expectation of Elijah 
to precede the coming of Messiah. Speaking of John, 
Christ says, " And if ye can receive it, this is Elijah 
that was for to come." In the Apocalypse, John says. 
"I saw the souls of them that were beheaded" (or had 
the martyr's crown) "for the witness of Jesus and they " 
— and none other — ''lived and reigned with Christ," 
etc. "This is the first resurrection." No bodies are 
seen, and no intimation that they walk the earth in their 
proper person, so that we are forced to the conclusion 
that if Christ's reign is a spiritual one in and through 
his people, this resurrection must be a spiritual one also. 
To this the Spirit gives most hearty assent. 

TVho shall tell me, then, that these commanding fig- 
ures in the line of faith in these days, are not in them- 
selves the impersonation of the old heroes, as J olm was 
of Elijah? "If ye can receive it," yes, "if ye can re- 
ceive it," they are the pioneers of a great company yet 
to come at the crowning of the King. God speed that 
day, and to Christ be all the glory, now and forever. 
The premonitory symptoms of such a revival may be 
gathered not only from these pioneers of a living faith, 
but in the wonderful increase in late years of the num- 



314 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

ber of Christ's followers. In the four years preceding 
the census of 1880 the net gain over losses by death, 
discipline and other causes, was 1,631,799, or more than 
four hundred thousand each year, while the increase in 
churches has been more than ten for every working day of 
ten hours for the whole four years. The increase in or- 
dained ministers has been in the same time nearly ten 
thousand, to say nothing of the army of evangelists and 
Christian workers who have gone into the " fields already 
white unto harvest." The late movement among the stu- 
dents of the land is most surprising, for quite two thou- 
sand of them stand pledged to the mission fields in for- 
eign lands. " For the law shall go forth from Mount 
Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." 

" I will take sickness away from the midst of thee " is 
our second quotation; and for this assurance we have 
the promise of the Omnipotent God which cannot fail. 
Has this promise been, hitherto, fulfilled? Has there 
been any time in the world's history when we can say it 
has been realised? Of course not. There it still re- 
mains to be fulfilled in all its fullness in the near future, 
for the gentle steppings of the Spirit are even now felt 
in the hearts of many who are taking God at his word, 
and claiming relief from bodily infirmities and sicknesses 
far beyond the skill of earthly physicians. That the 
promise is not run out is fully established by Christ's 
own assurances. If we want proof as to the time when 
it should begin to be fulfilled, we have it in the words 
communicated to John (Kev. 22-2) as the peculiar 



THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 315 

heritage of spiritual Israel, or the Church in the new 
dispensation : '• The leaves of the tree shall be for the 
healing of the nation." Do you say this finds its fulfill- 
ment in the gospel of Christ working in the heart and 
life of his followers and gradually overcoming sin, the 
cause of disease ? It does more than this, for it gives 
promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which 
is to come. 

The cause of all the trouble in Eden was that the 
woman believed the assurances of Satan rather than the 
word of God, and every child born into the world since 
that day has re-enacted the same scene, and with the 
same identical results. * It is for us to "bruise the ser- 
pent's head'' when by the faith of Christ, or Christ's 
faith in us, we shall implicitly step out on the promises 
of God and "ask that ye may receive, that your joy may 
be full." The only conditions imposed -are these: 

"If ye abide in me and niy words abide in yon. ye shall ask 
what ye will and it shall be done for yon." 

If the reader is looking for a happy time here or here- 
after, when Satan shall be bound and cease his troubling, 
he will be most woefully mistaken. 1 The scriptures 
teach no such doctrine. The wicked may " cease from 
troubling," but Satan nevei*, unless you have learned to 
hate all his works and tread him under your feet here 
in the flesh by the power of love in Christ Jesus. 

1 Rom. 8-14; Job 1-6; Cor. 11-14. 



316 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



" For we know that the whole creation groan eth and 
travaileth in pain until now * * * waiting for the manifes- 
tation of the sons of God, and the adoption, to wit, the redemp- 
tion of our body into the glorious LIBERTY of the sons of 
God" (Rom. 8-22, 19, 23). 

Now, if we can truly say, " The law of the spirit of life 
in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of 
sin and death, then we are taken out of the clutches of 
the law of sin which worketh disease and death, into 
freedom and heirship, yea, and even kingship with 
Christ, for it is written: — 

"Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and 
we shall reign on the earth " (Rev. 5-10). 

"And I appoint unto YOU a kingdom, as my Father hath 
appointed unto ME, that ye may eat and drink at my tahle in 
my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel" (L«u. 22-29, 30). 

This is in perfect harmony with Christ's declaration, 
which very properly introduces our third topic : " He 
that keepeth my sayings shall never see death.'" Of the 
truth of this there are numerous examples in these days. 
In the days to come they will be wonderfully increased 
as disciples come into the full liberty of the Gospel. 
Death will become like a gentle sleep, so peaceful and 
quiet, without an anxious thought, even among those 
who before have had great fear of death, without a sigh 
for earth, but a glorious expectancy of stepping over the 
line into sweet companionship and eternal bliss " with 
Him whom my soul loveth." " Death is swallowed up 
in victory: O Grave, where is thy sting! O Death, 



THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 317 

where is thy victory ! " And if we have such victory 
even now, what shall it be in the years and ages to come, 
after Christ has begun to reign. 

Nor is it difficult to imagine, with such power over 
sin, disease and the grave; with the reign of '-peace on 
earth, good will unto men"; with the land weeded of the 
incorrigible foes of Christ — atheists, infidels, socialists, 
nihilists, and the like — that the cause of all trouble 
departs. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away and tears, 
save tears of joy, " shall be wiped away from off all 
faces." This is become literally true in thousands of 
cases to-day, giving glorious promise of what shall be 
when the kingdom shall be given into the hands of the 
Son. " For it doth not yet appear what we shall be. but 
we know that when He shall appear we shall be like 
him " — if we have cultivated his spirit of love and for- 
giveness — " for we shall see him as he is.*' AYe shall 
understand, as never before, what redemption means, 
and see ourselves reflected in his image, being trans- 
figured into his likeness, 1 to whom be glory forever. 

Neither will we have to strain oar eyes to get a fore- 
glimpse of the vast treasure house of material blessings 
in store for God's people in the ages to come, standing 
as we do on its very threshold and hardly able as yet to 
look beyond the vestibule ; but we can see enough to 
excite the wildest hopes. What secrets of wonderful 
power and magnificence Nature shall yet be forced to 
disclose in the years to come, no mortal may as yet 

ilJno. 3-2. 



318 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

know. Enough is known already, above all conceptions 
of the past, that we may rest assured the prophet was 
right and saw marvelous sights when he wrote : 

"Since the beginning; of the world men have not heard, 
nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen. © God, 
beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that wastethfor 
him." 

The experience of eminent scientists shows that there 
is no known limit to the possibilities which are open to 
inventive genius. Experience shows that the progress 
of discovery becomes more and more rapid as it ad- 
vances. Each discovery reveals some new truth which 
prepares the way for another step in advance. Often, 
indeed, the investigation of an apparently insignificant 
matter will lead to very great results by removing some 
obstacle which has blocked previous progress. Dr. 
Werner Siemens has pointed out in a recent lecture in 
Berlin, how all these developments of science will tend 
to bring many things within the reach of all classes, 
which have until now been enjoyed by the rich only; 
that shorter hours of labor will be the rule, and a more 
even distribution of the comforts of life, as well as of 
the profits of labor. 

A glorious prospect thus opens for the development 
of God's bounties out of this grand storehouse of his, 
kept intact for so many generations. We have come to 
take these things so naturally and in the course of events, 
tkat we have no realising sense of the blessings we 
enjoy, even in the peace and security of the land, with 



THE MILLENNIAL GLOEY. 319 

complete freedom to come and to go, anywhere, every- 
where, with none to molest, or to make us afraid. Car- 
riages are ready at all hours of the day for the humblest 
citizen, in all the cities of the land, at the merest trifle 
of cost. For long distances that formerly would have 
taken many weary months to travel, the swift railroad car 
with its luxurious apartments "fit for a king," is within 
reach of all, if necessity calls, bringing us to our destina- 
tion in a most rapid manner. 

If we desire to walk or to ride in our own conveyance, 
the land is free from ravenous beasts and reptiles, because 
it is written, "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous 
beast." How different is this from most other countries. 
I think I have already stated that more than twenty-five 
thousand people are destroyed annually in India, the 
greater part being by poisonous serpents. Yet a little 
while and the land will be cleansed of ravenous human 
beasts, so that " nothing shall hurt or destroy in all my 
holy mountains, saith the Lord." 

Our tables are supplied with the delicacies of this and 
every other land and within the reach of all. but for the 
foul curse of drink. It has been said by foreigners that 
we waste enough to support a European population 
equal to our own. What a comment on the prodigality 
of our resources! We should be surprised beyond 
measure to know the details of the daily living of the 
world outside of Israel. But the comforts of this God- 
given land of spiritual Israel surpass everything con- 
ceived of in Christ's time, save by inspiration, yet 



320 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

how little we realise the extent of our blessings, even 
now. 

In the furnishing of our houses it is the same, and 
luxuriousness prevails to an extent that could not have 
been dreamed of in the wildest flights of the imagina- 
tion. With the cheapening of every kind of embellish- 
ment necessary to an elegant appearance in the home* 
the wage of labor has increased fifteen fold, so that these 
things are within easy reach of every industrious and 
frugal man. But how many there are who, as boys, 
started from the lowest walks of life, without influence 
or friends, born perhaps across the water in a foreign 
land, have risen so rapidly in wealth and position as to 
become merchant princes, and to enjoy palaces beyond 
the ability of the mightiest monarchs of olden time. Not 
because they may have more money, for that cannot be 
said, but because the products of this age are beyond 
those of any other age of the world. 

The message of a President is flashed across the con- 
tinent and reaches its destination hours — by the clock — 
before it is delivered, though it be taken from his lips 
as he reads it. It is cabled under the ocean to Europe, 
printed and commented upon, cabled back again, and 
the comments are in the papers of the principal cities 
of our own land the next morning. Men sit in their 
offices and call a friend fifty or a hundred miles away, 
or in a factory but a few miles away, with whom they 
wish to converse on matters of business or pleasure, and 
immediately they are in communication with him. 



THE MILLENNIAL GLORY. 321 

Our newspapers come to us in rain or shine, filled 
with news from every quarter of the civilised globe, 
and the poor man would think himself undergoing great 
privation if he could not look at the daily paper, though it 
be filled, all too often, with details of bloodshed and 
oppression. How long will it be ere these swift mes- 
sengers of a world's development shall contain only 
cheering news of Christ's onward march to victory? 
The glad harbinger of a better day is already dawning. 
The Sun of Eighteousness is now tipping the "high 
mountain " of the Lord with shimmerings of golden 
light, and "with healing in his beams." "Even so, 
Lord Jesus, come quickly." 

With a cleansing of the land and a survival of those 
best fitted to live; with the Sabbath a delightsome day 
and his courts a pleasure; with a people fearing God, 
loving righteousness and walking as little children free 
from carking cares, doubts, and fears: with the leaves of 
the tree of life for the healing of the nations, what won- 
der that men are speedily regaining lost vitality and age, 
and rapidly coming to the time when ''the child dying 
shall be an hundred years old: but the sinner being an 
hundred years old shall be accursed."' As it is now. with 
all the elements of evil about us and antecedent to us; 
with the terribly depleting effects of modern drinking 
habits upon us. and the disastrous effects of the crowded 
and sin-laden condition of all large cities, the average 
of human life is said to have advanced nineteen years 
in the last one hundred, where Life Insurance statistics 



322 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

have been kept. These companies in England are be- 
ginning to make a distinction in rates for those who are 
considered "first-class," and a corresponding advance 
for those who are considered as "second-class " by reason 
of loose habits of life. When such classification is 
completed in Europe and this country, I think the aver- 
age of life with the better class will be found so far in 
advance of the sinners as to astonish us. 

The gospel is not yet doing its best for men because 
we have not yet learned to cast our burdens on the Lord, 
and to be tf anxious for nothing; but in everything, by 
prayer and supplications,' with thanksgiving, make 
known your requests unto God." Care, anxiety, and 
overfeeding, make terrible inroads on our vitality, and 
not until we can fully understand the " liberty where- 
with Christ shall make us free," can we reap its full 
benefits. Thus we can readily perceive an easy and natu- 
ral solution respecting the returning age of men which 
can be had in no other way; frid this is the only inter- 
pretation that commends itseli to sanctified common 
sense. 

This passage has always been a great stumbling-block 
to the ordinary pre-millennial theory, and any amount of 
ingenious conjecture has been expended in its solution, 
but all to do purpose; for how the sinners were to sur- 
vive the general conflagration, and sneak past the first 
resurrection into the abode of the saints, has been a 
problem past finding out. The interpretation here given 
under the teaching of the Spirit, is the only reasonable 



THE MILLENNIAL GLOEY. 323 

one that can be given to it, namely, that the victories of 
Christ are to be won on this present plane of conditions 
and in present spheres of action. With present agencies 
intensified and enlarged under the operation of the 
Spirit, we shall yet find that sinners, while yielding 
themselves to the outward observances of religion and 
good morals, though withholding the inner service of 
the heart, will reap all the physical benefits of pious, 
ancestral, parentage, and their own moral lives. If they 
resist all the beneficent influences of the Spirit and 
godly surroundings until death comes at the age of one 
hundred, their condition will certainly be " accursed/ 7 

It is a very simple conclusion from the premises ; if 
man lost his strength of body and mind by reason of 
sin, then, certainly, a life of righteousness ought to have 
its beneficent effects and produce constantly increasing 
years, with corresponding joy in life, happiness in the 
bounties of heaven, and such nearness of access to the 
Father and communion with the Lord Jesus, as to make 
a very heaven upon earth. To this view the scriptures 
throughout agree, and to no other. Hundreds of passages 
could be cited which fall into this line of thought as 
naturally as the air we breathe. Instead of being in- 
terpreted with a spiritual meaning and pertaining to a 
celestial life beyond the grave, or even upon a renewed 
earth, they are to be taken in all their literalness to the 
fullest extent, which should certainly have the effect of 
producing in the heart of the believer the liveliest en- 
thusiasm and intense interest in the '"things of the king- 



324 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

dom," as an offset to the cares and perplexities of the 
material life offered to us by the god of this world. This 
was God's intention in giving these portraitures of the 
coming kingdom, but how sadly have we failed to per- 
ceive their true meaning and have even gone so far, as 
some are doing, as to cast aside the Old Testament 
scriptures as pertaining to a past age and people with 
which we have nothing special to do. Let us not thus 
throw away the richest part of our inheritance, but re- 
joice in it as a free gift of God for countless ages to 
come. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM. 

" And lie carried me away in the spirit to a great and high 
mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem 
descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God ; and 
her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper 
stone, clear as crystal " (Kev. 21-11). 

It is probably seen by this time that we have very 
little faith in any interpretation which makes the last 
three chapters of the Apocalypse to portray the end of 
the world, the general judgment, and the heavenly estate 
on a renewed earth. Nor have we faith in any inter- 



THE NEW JERUSALEM. 325 

pretation which calls for a literal reading of any part of 
these chapters where a symbolic renderiug can make 
sense. The verse which we have quoted above is another 
very strong proof of the symbolic character of the whole 
chapter. As a literal reading there is neither sense nor 
reason in it, while as a sybolism it is in the highest 
degree both reason and sense. Let us try it first as a 
literal reading. 

•John is carried in spirit, or imagination, to a great and 
high mountain to see the descent of a city, complete 
with walls, streets, and mansions, capable of containing 
all the nations of the redeemed. The whole city is 
adorned with the most precious stones in the founda- 
tions of the walls, the wall itself being of jasper fifteen 
hundred miles on each side. The gates of this immense 
city, three on each side, are each of one single pearl, 
while the city itself, with its palaces and mansions of 
rest and all the streets, is of pure gold. There is no 
night in this celestial city, and no need of the sun nor of 
the moon ; consequently it could not be on this earth, 
for so long as this earth contains the same essential 
elements as at present, the presumption is it will stand 
in very .nearly the same relation to the sun and moon as 
at present. 

John says he saw this immense city descending out 
of heaven upon the earth. If this huge city was in right 
earnest descending out of heaven, where was the neces- 
sity of his being taken to a high mountain to see it ? 
One place would be as a good as another. But why 



326 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



continue this most rediculous supposition ? The whole 
story as an actual occurrence is as senseless as the story 
of Aladdin's Lamp. Yet we once heard an intelligent 
Christian lawyer attempt to calculate in round numbers 
the value of such a city. 

If, on the other hand, we take the verse as a sym- 
bolism — as the entire character of the book warrants us 
in doing — we are able to determine at once from other 
parts of scripture, the value of each symbol and get an 
intelligible idea from it. We have had occasion to 
observe before that a mountain, as a symbol, is intended 
to mean a prominent nation or kingdom. The only 
apparent deviation from this well established value was 
in the case of the frequent use of the term " high mount- 
ain" as an actual designation of the pnace where God 
intended to found a great nation and kingdom, and to 
that "high mountain'" John was very probably taken, 
as will more fully appear as we prooceed. 

The very general equivalent of a symbolic city as 
given by the best expositors, is a church, and a " great 
city " would indicate a very large body of worshippers ; 
so that we have here the veiy sensible idea of a very 
great nation or kingdom in which the Christian Church is 
to be an all important and essential element as an 
institution. Its descent out of heaven would indicate 
that the holiness and purity of Heaven were becoming 
an essential feature of its earthly condition to such ah 

1 See chap. 6. , . . 



THE NEW JERUSALEM. 327 

extent that the most precious stones are needed to 
convey an adequate idea of its glory. 

It is quite unfortunate for us that we have lost the lan- 
guage of colors as represented in gems, and thus we lose the 
important lessons to be gained by this very unique 
description of the new Jerusalem. This language of 
gems was well understood by the ancients, and fairly 
preserved to us down to the Middle Ages, when we gradu- 
ally lost the meaning of the colors so conspicuously 
and tenaciously emblazoned on crests, shields, and her- 
aldic devices in the old world. In cathedral windows 
we still see our Lord and the Apostles clothed with gar- 
ments of conventional color, significant of individual 
character. But what that character is we can only 
judge by what we know of each individual person, 
which at best would be only a guess for all the light the 
artists themselves could give us in regard to their own 
work. Yet they continue in the same old routine to 
paint as did their masters of the olden time. 

We can, however, gather enough from ancient writers 
to know that all the colors of light were to them ex- 
pressive of spiritual truths. The Israelites certainly 
knew the value of these renderings of light in the gem- 
med breastplate of the High Priest. Even the forms, 
sizes, arrangement and adornment of every part of the. 
Tabernacle and the Temple were to them emblems of 
truths, and spake with intelligence to them. In Huck's 
translation of the Chinese records of Christianity we 
read of religion being conveyed in the blue chariot, and 



328 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

its doctrine being a blue cloud because it is truth from 
heaven. We read also of the vermilion palace and the 
adornments of all colors. The Brahmins associated the 
days of the week by colors, with Divine qualities. Thus, 
Sunday is pure sunlight; Monday is moonday, since its 
reflection is white and indicative of purity; Tuesday is 
represented by the flame-colored coral, or love and hope 
in action; Wednesday is emerald, kindliness and accom- 
modation; Thursday, the topaz, holy knowledge; Fri- 
day, the diamond, light embodied in teachable truths; 
Saturday, the sapphire, truth, slow and sure. "The 
seven precious things honored by Buddhists in China 
and elsewhere are gems or other substances of various 
colors. These are used to express virtues, and are ac- 
cordingly found in the tombs of Buddhist notables in 
India. 1 

From these slight evidences it must be apparent to any 
one that the adornments of the Heavenly Jerusalem 
were expressive to Orientals of spiritual beauty and 
truth pertaining to the Church of God in the new dis- 
pensation; not by any means a description of any real 
city in Heaven or on the earth. This view is corrobo- 
rated by what follows : 

" And I saw no teniple therein ; for the Lord God Almighty 
and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the nations of them 
which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings 
of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it" (Vers. 22, 
«4). 

1 Mythology of India. 



THE NEW JERUSALEM. 329 

From this last verse it is very evident that God and 
the Lamb are not in any literal sense the temple, but 
the persons worshiped. The worshipers themselves 
are the temple, as we gather from other parts of script- 
ure not symbolic. Thus the Apostle writes under 
direction of the Spirit: 

"Know ye not that YE are the temple of God, and that the 
Spirit of God dweileth in yon ? " (1 Cor. 3-16). 

'•What! know ye not that your hody is the temple of the 
Holy Ghost which is in you. which ye have of God. and ye are 
not your own?" (1 Cor. 6-19). 

Here we have the body of every true believer to be 
the temple of God, and the inner sanctuary of the heart 
— the seat of the affections and will — as the true home 
of the invisible presence of the Lamb of God. How 
beautiful, and in perfect harmony with all scripture, is 
this plain view of our theme. To this Church of God on 
earth in this God-given land of Israel, all eyes are turned 
in all quarters of the globe. " The nations of them which 
are saved (will) walk in the light of it ; and the kings of 
the earth (will) bring their glory and honor into it." 
They will then have learned to rule in the fear of God. 
after beholding the doom of those kings who presumed 
to rule in a manner displeasing to Him, and contrary to 
the best interests of their subjects. If the nations now, 
under the quiet, enlightening, upheaving, influences of 
this God-given Republic, are getting clearer perceptions 
of the wrongs of ages in connection with the " divine 
rights of kings," think you not after the last great battle 



330 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

they will have still clearer perceptions of the source of 
their awakened energies and quickened convictions ? 
Most assuredly they will, for God himself has said 
respecting this very conflict: t . 

"Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself ; and I 
will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall 
know that I am the Lord " (Eze. 38-23;. 

More especially will all this be .true in.. respect to the 
relations which will hereafter exist between the State 
and the Church. The one sad relic of Imperialism and 
the Papacy is the union of these two, to the great dam- 
age of the Church and hindrance of the truth. To the 
astonishment of the world we have severed forever this 
connection, and the unprecedented growth of the Church 
in this country gives unmistakable evidence of God's 
superintending care. There is then " no more need of 
the sun nor of the moon " (symbols of rulers and mighty 
kings) "to shine in it, for the glory of God doth (now) 
lighten it, and the Lamb is (noiv) the light thereof" 
(ver. 23). Nor will it take long for the nations of the 
Old World to learn the lesson and follow our example 
when the churches themselves have become imbued 
with the spirit of Christ, and then most truly can it be 
said "they walk in the light of it." 

On any other hypothesis than the above there is 
neither sense nor reason in respect of this much abused 
text. But with the, one here advanced under the teach- 
ing of the Spirit, all scripture falls into line in its ap- 



THE NEW JERUSALEM. 331 

pointed place, adding new beauty and luster with each 
new accession, until the whole chapter is surrounded 
with a halo of glory equal to the very highest flight of 
the prophet's art of delineation. 

•• In THAT DAY shall the branch i of the tord be beautiful 
and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and 
comely for them that are escaped of Israel. For though thy 
people Israel be as the sand of the sea. OXI.Y A REMXAXT 
shall return : a consumption is decreed. OVERFLOWIX<i 
with righteousness" Tsa. 4-2: 10-22). 

TVe have seen in a previous chapter how literally 
these verses have found their fulfillment in the return 
of spiritual Israel to her God-appointed land, while 
several passages show clearly that Israel is to be pre- 
ferred before Judah in the distribution of blessings, 
both spiritual and material, and will be the medium by 
which Judah shall come to know the truth as it is in 
Christ. God speed the day which is even now dawning 
upon us ! 2 By all that has transpired we have an assurance 
that all the promises respecting the reign of righteous- 
ness on the earth, will be fulfilled without the interven- 
tion of a burning world or a judgment day other than 
the natural and self-courted judgment which every sin- 

1 The " topmost branch of the high cedar"? 
• 2 A wonderful movement seems at present to be going on among 
European Jews, in a readiness to read the New Testament with- 
out strong prejudice. A secGnd edition of 120.000 copies, printed 
in Vienna, was recently sent to England for distribution. 100,000 
of which were paid for by one wealthy Scotchman. An eminent 



332 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

■ r i .1 • . , ■ • 

ner lays himself liable to when he deliberately enters 
the service of Satan. 

A glorious prospect is opened to us for continued and 
doubly energised activity in the service of our blessed 
Lord, while the Holy Spirit is being given in large and 
ever larger and more abounding measure as the years 
roll on, " until every knee shall bow and every tongue 
confess to the glory of God the Father." A great vic- 
tory will be gained for Christ, when even the " wrath of 
man shall praise him," when the tables shall be so 
completely turned upon Satan that even his profoundest 
scheme for the destruction of Christ's kingdom shall 
have proved a very means of aiding that kingdom, by 
cultivating such a reverence for his name and person, 
that the Holy Spirit will find the easiest converts of the 
future among the Catholics of this land and of the 
world. " Thy kingdom come on earth, O Lord, thy will 
be done." 

The whole creation groaneth and is waiting for this 
manifestation of the sons of God, and for the restitution 
of all things to original purity and happiness; for the 
time when men, redeemed by the precious blood of 
Christ, shall walk with God in Eden restored, in the 

Hungarian Eabbi, Dr. J. Lichtenstein, has greatly surprised his 
co-religionists by publishing, recently, two very able tracts affirm- 
ing the divinity of Jesus, though still remaining obedient to the 
Mosaic dispensation. Jews in many places of Asiatic Turkey, as 
well as in Russia and Poland, are extremely desirous, privately, to 
know more about the Messiah. 



THE NEW JEKUSALEM. 333 

consciousness of a complete victory over sin; a re-invest- 
ment of kingly dignity over the creation of God; a re- 
instatement into physical and intellectual vigor and an 
uninterrupted intercourse 

" With beings wrought of finer mold than V)e" 

With a clearer vision we shall be able, like Jacob, to 
see " angels ascending and descending " on the heavenly 
ladder, and this earth will be to us indeed " the Holy 
City, the New Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned 
for her husband." Thanks be to God, we have not to 
wait for a definite time in the dim future for the appear- 
ance of this golden city. To some it has already ap- 
peared, and they are walking its golden streets and 
resting in its blissful mansions. Each night its gates 
are closed upon them for quiet, peaceful slumbers. Each 
morning its gat?s of pearl are swung open by angelic 
porters, and heavenly music fills the air while praise is 
on the lips. Few, comparatively, are the inhabitants of 
this great city at the preseut, but these rejoice in the 
assurance of increased numbers day by day; quickened 
movements in the direction of " the kingdom " when 
" judgments in the earth " lead men to seek a " covert 
from the storm," and a "boom" when the Son of David 
takes the throne. The Spirit and the Bride say, come 
into the city now and take your choice of its mansions 
of rest. And let him that heareth this invitation re-echo 
the voice and say, " Come : and whosoever will, let him 
come and drink of the water of life freely." 



334 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



CHAPTER XVI". 

THE RELEASE OF THE DRAGON, AND THE PER- 
SONAL COMING OF CHRIST. , 

"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be 
loose! out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations 
which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to 
gather them together to battle ; the number of whom is as the sand 
of the sea : And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and 
compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city ; and 
fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them" 
(Kev. 20-7, 8, 9). 

" For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout 
with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God ; and 
the dead in Christ shall rise first : then we which are alive and 
remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds, to 
meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be with the Lord " 
(2 Thess. 4-16, 17). 

"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the 
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, 
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 
changed " (1 Cor. 15-51, 52). 

"But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same 
word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judg- 
ment and perdition of ungodly men. But the day of the Lord 
will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens shall 
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with 



. THE NEW. JERUSALEM. .835 

fervent heat, the earth also arid the works that are therein shall be 
burned up" (2 Peter. 3-7, 10). 

We have connected these symbolic verses of Revela- 
tion with those of direct prophecy from the epistles of 
Paul and. Peter because they seem to be connected by 
the one judgment of 'fire, which is the peculiar feature 
of the last judgment, the resurrection, and the personal 
appearing of our Lord* They seem also to stand in 
chronological order, though not by any means necessarily 
synchronous events but rather the contrary, for there is 
no special reason to suppose that the millennial kingdom 
must cease because the Dragon is destroyed by a judg- 
ment of fire at the time he is suffered to go up and down 
in the earth to deceive the nations. But there is every 
reason to believe from very many passages, that this 
kingdom will continue on in increasing splendor until 
the resources of the earth are exhausted. As there is 
no positive clue by which to determine those events, we 
shall be obliged to gather the truth from the general 
tenor of scripture as we proceed. 

Satan is no more Satan now than when, under his 
proper name of Dragon, he waged war with political 
Israel and, with the judgments of God upon him, got 
terribly defeated. The nature of the beast never changes 
though his names may. Nor is there the slightest 
evidence, but rather the contrary, that the next chapter 
(21st) is a continuation of the story immediately follow- 
ing the events of the 20th chapter. We have seen that 
the first three chapters give the counsel to the churches, 



336 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

and then from the fourth to the eleventh the history, in 
a general way, of the imperio-papal powers, and the 
death-blow that was given to them, with the moral 
phenomena which accompanied that memorable time. 
From the twelfth chapter John goes back to the point 
of beginning and takes up the papal-ecclesiastical power 
in minute detail. He gives all her peculiar features, 
color of her garments, place of her abode, and name of 
the people with whom she dwells, with many other items, 
until the final battle results (chap. 20) in the suppression 
of the Dragon of Imperialism for a very long time — put 
in round numbers at a thousand years — and the utter 
annihilation of the Papal Hierarchy (chap. 18-21), but 
does not destroy the Catholic Church by any means, nor 
indeed the spirit of imperialism. 

At the end of the thousand years, whatever time that 
may be, there are found those who have a lurking desire 
for the old regime of imperial power, perhaps scions of 
royalty, who consider themselves to have been cheated out 
of their divine (?) rights, and are determined to regain 
them if possible. It is very significant that the effort 
begins among the people of that nation which assumes, 
to day, to stand as the head and front of imperialism ; 
viz., Gog and Magog. From the fact stated of their 
encompassing " the camp of the saints," it would seem 
that the powers opposed to political Israel in the last 
great battle, have attributed their terrible defeat to the 
Church of Christ — perhaps under the general term of 
Protestantism, which certainly is well known to be an 



THE NEW JEEUSALEM. 337 

opponent of all forms of error in faith and church forms. 

In these long years of peace and consequent prosperity 
the powers of the Old World will have had ample time 
to recuperate their fortunes so terribly dissipated by the 
last disastrous conflict, and have come to imagine they 
can now wage successful war against their former con- 
querors and establish again the old Imperial regime. 
Under the instigation of Satan, the arch-enemy, they 
account for their defeat on some plausible grounds and 
forget the judgments that came upon their hosts, and 
they will not be lacking in pretexts for re-opening the 
war for supremacy in the government of the world. It 
is but the renewal of the same old war that began in 
Heaven for supremacy there, only now the battle-field 
and the living actors are changed to this earth. As in 
the last conflict, so now, they have "counted without 
their host,*' for this time the judgment from heaven is 
final and conclusive. Imperialism is doomed to utter 
and complete destruction, for the record is, " Fire came 
down from heaven and devoured them.'' 

On looking at the tenth verse (chap. 20) we find that 
the Dragon, under his alias of the devil, is " cast into the 
lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false 
prophet are." We learn from chap. 18-21 that these, 
under the symbol of Babylon' (which stands for the 
whole hierarchy of Rome, civil and ecclesiastic), were 
cast with great violence into the sea from whence the 
beast and the Dragon came. We may fairly conclude, 
then, since there can be no conflict in the record, that 



338"' THE COMING KINGDOM. 

the term "lake of fire and brimstone" is used to signify 
the extreme penalty imposed for this second attempt to 
usurp unwarranted power and to enslave the people. 
To suppose that a principle of government and a false 
system of religious teaching, as the symbols of the Dragon 
and the beasts undoubtedly represent, can be cast into 
hell, is simply absurd and admits of no argument. We 
may consider it settled, then, that the whole system of 
falsehood instigated by Satan in government and 
religion, is gone forever under the terrific assaults of 
that mighty Conqueror— " The Word of God." ! 

This term of a thousand years as a definite number of 
years during which false systems of government and 
religion are to remain inactive and dormant on account 
of their crushing defeat, appears improbable on the 
face of it. Doubt is fixed to something like certainty 
when it appears from all reliable sources that the term 
is purely a rabinical one indicating a long period of 
time. By them the days of the Messiah on the earth 
were reckoned to be a thou-ruid years. Clark says, 
'■' Both the Greeks and Latins have the same form of 
speech in speaking on the state of the righteous and 
wicked after death." He also quotes from classic 
writers to show in what sense it was used, from which 
we gather that the term was singularly indefinite, ac- 
cording to the subject or persons to whom it was ap- 
plied, very much as we use it now in random remarks 
and calculations.' ' That John used it as a common form 

1 Bead carefully chap. 19-11 to the end. 



THE NEW JERUSALEM.' 339 

of speech borrowed from others, the whole construction 
of the book implies. We may conclude then that it 
means simply a long time, without doing violence or 
injustice to the language used. 

On the other hand, it is in the highest degree improb- 
able that the very numerous and emphatic utterances of 
prophecy respecting the continuation of the throne of 
David " throughout all generations," " an everlasting 
dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom 
that which shall not be destroyed," shall be limited by a 
thousand years. The term should be used in the ordi- 
nary sense in respect of imperialism, and in a prophetic 
sense of a year of days and a day for a year in respect of 
Israel ; which would give us a period somewhat com- 
mensurate with the above promises, or three hundred and 
sixty-five thousand years. For this transposition we have 
a warrant in the declaration of God that " one day with 
the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as 
one day." It is intimated also in the Decalogue in these 
words : " Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children unto the third and fourth generations of them 
that hate me, but showing mercy unto thousands " (of 
generations) "of them that love me and keep my com- 
mandments" (see also Deut. 7-9). 

If we look at the context a little more closely we shall 
see that this phrase of "a thousand years" was spoken 
of those only who were beheaded for the witness of 
Jesus " and such as worshiped not the beast," who 
constituted the first resurrection, and they alone lived 



340 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

and reigned with Christ; while none of the rest of the 
righteous dead lived and reigned with him until after 
the thousand years were ended. How long after we are 
not told, so that we are left perfectly free to adopt the 
more probable interpretation given above of an im- 
mensely^long period, without doing any violence to the 
text, and really in keeping with numerous passages 
which favor the longer term. 

This seems the more probable when we consider that 
after this rebellion, the kingdom will be so completely 
sifted of all m lcontents that only the true and conse- 
crated followers of Christ will be left, and the special 
mission of the martyr spirit of the first resurrection will 
have ceased. 

With the accretions of population by those " fittest to 
live " it would not take long to fill the earth with a busy, 
prosperous, and happy people, with renewed strength 
and prolonged lives far beyond anything the world has 
ever dreamed of. From this we might judge that the 
above long period of time would amply suffice to exhaust 
theresources of old earth and give good excuse for wind- 
ing up its affairs, since it will be no longer needed. 
It will have proved to be the moral battle-field for a 
universe — a " test case " for eternity. Men, angels and 
all created intelligences have been the spectators and part- 
participants, and our Christ has won the victory, and 
" thy people shall long live to enjoy the work of their 
hands" (Isa. 65-22: 60-21). 



THE NEW JERUSALEM. 341 



" In his days shall the righteous flourish ; 

And ahundanee of peace, till themoon he no more'* 

-(Psa. y»-y). 

•THEX cometh the EXD when he shall have delivered up 
the kingdom to God. even the Father: when he shall have 
put down all rule and all authority and power: for he must 
reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. And when 
all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also 
himself he subject unto Him that put all things under him. 
that Cwod may be all in all" (Cor. 15-34, 25. S88). 

Here then we have something definite respecting the 
time of the end, in harmony with all scripture, with this 
discussion from beginning to end, and with common 
sense. As we have had occasion already to say in a 
former chapter, if it took four thousand years for man 
to run to his lowest point under the leading of Satan, 
do give the gospel of our Christ an equal length of time 
at least to recover man from his lost condition. It must 
also prove its power to keep him from again falling 
under the dominion of sin, or what shall hinder another 
defection in heaven itself, as before. Finally, it must 
show a profitable investment of intelligence, power, and 
skill, or the plan and the investment are a failure if 
more are lost by the plan than will eventually be saved 
by it, as would be the case if the work of redemption is 
cut short now. All this takes time on the part of man, 
but the victory will be so complete that the number of 
those who shall be saved as compared with the lost will 
be as an ocean to a bucketful. 

If there shall be found any at the end of these long- 
ages of happy government under the benignant rule of 



342 THE COMING KINGDOM. 



Christ, who shall say in their hearts — though their 
outward lives may profess conformity to his laws and 
rule — it will certainly be justifiable on the part of the 
King to execute judgment upon them at once, as past all 
reasonable hopes of redemption. 

"When the Lord .Jesus shall he revealed from heaven with 
his mighty angels, in FLAUIIXCw FIRE taking- vengeance 
on them that know not G-od, and that ohey not the gospel of 
our Lord Jesus Christ*' (2 Thess. 1-7.8). 

" For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shouf, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise 
first. Then we which are alive shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 
Thess. 4-16, 17). 

•• But the heavens and the earth, which are now, 
hy the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire 
against the day of Jl T DdrME\ T T and perdition of ungodly 
men*' (3 Peter. 3-7: also ver. lO). 

These passages declare unmistakably, without sym- 
bolism or circumlocution, that the judgment of the 
ungodly at the last is to be by fire, and the destruction 
of the world by the same element. Not the slightest 
clue is given as to the time of this event, and there is 
only one passage in the whole Bible that is able to 
determine it, and that is the one we have quoted above 
from 1 Cor. 15 chapter, which speaks of his finished 
work and the character of it. That governs the whole 



THE NEW JERUSALEM. 343 

^subject ill unmistakable language, and any attempt to 
evolve or construct a personal coming before that time 
by, an unwarranted combination of "crazy quilt" pas- 
sages gathered here and there, will only meet with dis- 
appointment and failure. 

In connection with this judgment of fire and a world 
in flames we have the first intimation of any personal 
appearance of our Lord. This also is equally uncertain 
as to time, but. like the other event, it naturally connects 
itself with his finished work as "Mediator between God 
and man."' We learn, moreover, that when this per- 
sonal appearance takes place, there is a full and com- 
plete resurrection of all the redeemed dead of all the 
ages, and a quickening of all those who are living on 
the earth at the time. It is no resurrection of a certain 
class to the exclusion of the great body of believers — as 
in the case of the "first resurrection" if we believe that 
to be a literal rising from the grave — but a resurrection 
and a quickening for all of the followers of Christ under 
the old and the new covenants, without any distinction 
whatever. 

Nor should we fail to notice that the character of the 
former coming to take the kingdom is marked in a 
majority of cases by the phrase. "I come as a thief." 
which at once connects it with similar phrases in relation 
to Christ's coming to the churches of Asia in judgment 
for their defection from the faith, which we know to have 
been an impersonal coming, and completely in the line 
of natural and ordinary events. 



344 THE COMING KINGDOM. 

But the character of Christ's final and personal coming 
as revealed in this the only passage where that event is 
mentioned, is characterised by " a shout, and the voice 
of the archangel," which removes it at once from all 
connection with the thief -like character of his coming to 
cleanse the land " of all that offend, and all that do 
iniquity," before assuming his rightful crown as the Son 
of David. 

It is to be observed also that when this judgment of 
fire, the resurrection, and this change, are effected " in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" l 
that the saints are to "meet the Lord in the air." So 
shall we ever be ivith the Lord." Not the slightest in- 
timation is given that there is to be a return to this 
earth as the abode of the saints, so that we are forced 
to the conclusion, so plainly given throughout the script- 
ures, that this earth is to be the abode of the poeple of 
God to the end of time under present conditions, until a 
complete and thorough victory is won for Christ, and 
the entire church in this land and throughout the world 
has become pure and holy, " without spot or wrinkle or 
any such thing" — fit Bride of Christ, the conquering 
Son of God. 

It is to be noted also that these events in connection 
with "the end" and the "last trump" are indissolubly 
joined to the giving of an incorruptible body to all the 
saints, which still further connects the various passages 
together in natural order as accompaniments of one and 

1 1 Cor. 15-52. 



THE NEW JEKUSALEM. 345 

the same event, viz., the closing up of the affairs of this 
world and relegating all power and authority to God the 
Father and Creator of all things. 

Much more might be gathered from the scriptures to 
prove these various statements, but we have already 
transgressed the intended bounds of this book and must 
leave them in their suggestive condition. We urge our 
readers not to be satisfied with the mere reading of this 
book, but to search the scriptures for further proofs of 
their title to the boundless patrimony provided for them 
by their Heavenly Father, of whom you are the heir, 
even a joint heir with Jesus Christ your elder brother. 
We desire to impress upon each one his responsibility 
in this matter. If the Spirit has convinced you of 
the truth of these revelations of the Word, then pro- 
claim your convictions on every fitting occasion, that the 
hearts of God's people may be comforted and settled in 
the truth, and that all right minded people may be en- 
abled to "step over the line" on the side of God and 
home and native land, for its cleansing from the foul sins 
that are so likely to bring judgments upon us, perad- 
venture we may mitigate their severity. 



FINIS 



346 APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX A. 

THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES. 

(Page 178.) 

When Nebuchadnezzar is told by Daniel in the inter- 
pretation of the king's wonderful dream that seven times 
should pass over him, and a beast's heart should be 
given to him until he should learn that the Most High 
ruleth in the heavens and on earth, we judge that 
seven literal years are intended, and so it is generally 
held. But when God declares in respect to the national 
life of Israel that He would punish them yet 'seven 
times if they continued to disregard his will, we judge 
that a much longer time is intended, by so much as the 
life of a nation is longer than that of an individual, ex- 
tending even to a cycle of seven years of years or 2520 
years. 

This view is wonderfully sustained when we come to 
apply the facts of history to the career of Israel ; for, if 
we take 1776 as the close of her long life of captivity 
and oppression in one form or another under the iron 
heel of the Gentiles, we find that the commencement of 
this cycle carries us back to 744, B. C, the very time 
when Israel began to be carried captive by the 
Assyrians under Pul and Tiglath-pileser, and their 
places supplied by a foreign population. 

Again, in Daniel's interpretation of the king's dream 
respecting the image, as recorded in chap. 2-31, which 



APPENDIX. 347 



relates to four great kingdoms which should dominate 
the world to the time of the end ( which is more fully 
set forth in another vision in chap. 7 under the symbols 
of four great beasts rising out of the sea), Nebuchadnez- 
zar is represented by the head of gold of this great 
image; in other words, that the Babylonian kingdom was 
the first of these four kingdoms, the last of which should 
be the Roman, represented by the feet and toes of the 
image. 

If we are right in supposing this larger cycle expresses 
the duration of the oppressions of Israel, there is addi- 
tional reason for applying these same "seven times'" in 
their larger range to the duration of the four kingdoms 
symbolised by the image, at the head of which stood the 
Babylonian kingdom ; and if we apply the facts of his- 
tory as before, we have another wonderful confirmation 
of our supposition that the "times of the Gentiles'* 
covers a like larger cycle of years of years. 

Now, if we reckon back from 1794, which we have as- 
sumed to be the end of the 1260 years of the Roman 
domination of the saints, we are led back to 726, B. C. 
the very year in which Nabopolassar, the satrap of 
Babylon and father of Nebuchadnezzar, threw off the 
yoke of Assyria and established the kingdom of Babylon 
on a sure basis. 

We also see in this larger cycle of 2520 years just the 
other half of " time, times, and the dividing of time "- — 
the 1260 years of Daniel and the Apocalypse — which 
limit the duration of the ; ' man of sin"' as the last ex- 



348 APPENDIX. 



piring, relic of Gentile oppression over spiritual Israel. 
Thus we behold the hand of God reaching back into the 
dim ages of the past and pointing out on the dial plate 
of time the sure fate of nations for thousands of years. 



APPENDIX B. 

THE TWO WITNESSES. 

(Page 229.) 

Having never seen in print this interpretation of the 
witnesses, though it is incredible to us that no expositor 
of note has thought of this, the plainest and easiest of 
all solutions, we think it proper to give our reasons for 
saying that they symbolise the Bible and nothing else. 
Yet the latest book out says, " The Spirit and Prayer" 
are meant, and these are thought to be by the author 
profoundly new and original, and not one of the condi- 
tions of scripture are met by his interpretation. l Older 
expositors have thought with much more reason that 
two lines of witnesses for the truth are meant, who in 
all these years have stood up for the truth in various 
parts: notably the Albigenses and Waldenses in France, 
Bohemians, Lollards, and others. But they do not meet 
the conditions, and at best can only be held as mouth- 
pieces for the Bible — the fountain of truth. In verse 
three the "two witnesses" are defined to be "the two 

1 Bishop Mcllvaine's Wisdom of the Apocalvpse. 



APPENDIX. 349 



olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the 
God of the earth." We have no difficulty in defining 
the metaphorical " candlesticks," for Rev. 1-20 defines 
them to be the churches, without any chance for argu- 
ment. But the two. olive trees are a vital part of the 
symbolism and determine its character, and the script- 
ure as usual gives the true solution. In Zee. 4-3, 
after giving a description of the candlesticks in verse 
two, the prophet goes on to describe, as an inherent and 
principal part of the candlestick, " Two olive trees by 
it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the 
other upon the left side thereof." After asking, " What 
are these, my lord?" he is answered: — "This is the 
word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, 'not by 
might, nor by power, but by my sj>irit. saith the Lord"' 
(ver. 6). Twice again he asks, "What be these two 
olive branches which through the two golden pipes 
empty the golden oil out of themselves?" Then the 
angel replies, ''These are the two anointed ones" — 
shining ones—" that stand by the Lord of the whole 
earth" (ver. 14). From this scripture it is evident that 
the "two olive trees" are superior to the candlesticks 
since they supply the oil without which the candlesticks 
cannot shine or give light, and if these represent the 
Church as shown, then the "olive trees" must of neces- 
sity be that which supplies the Church with its life and 
power, and that is none other than the Word of God — 
the Old and New Testaments — without which the Church 
is shorn of its power and gives no light to the world. 



350 APPENDIX. 



This is still further evident from the reply of the angel 
in verse 6 : " Not by might, nor by power, but by my 
spirit, saith the Lord." As the Word of God supplies 
the Church with its means of light and strength and life, 
so the Spirit of God works through the Word and makes 
it " sharper than a two-edged sword " and is, moreover, 
itself the creator of the Word through which it works. 
This solution meets all the conditions, as we shall see. 



APPENDIX C. 

THE VIALS OF WRATH— REV. 1 6-1. 
(Page 248.) 

Much discussion has been indulged in respecting 
these last " plagues," and what facts of history answer 
to each separate " vial." As they were of no special 
importance to our main subject we embody our opinions 
of these plagues in this place simply as confirmatory 
evidence of the truth of our conclusions respecting the 
death blow to the Papacy and evidence of the truth of 
scripture prophecy. 

It is to be noticed that the first vial was poured out 
"upon the earth" from which arose the "beast" of 
Rev. 13-11 which has generally been held to be a 
symbol of the ecclesiastical branch of the Papacy. 



APPENDIX. 351 



Hence the " noisome and grievous sore " indicates a 
pestilential moral atmosphere, and a foul spirit of op- 
position and infidelity among the adherents of the 
Church, which could only find its counterpart in the 
demoniac rage of the Catholic people of France and 
even the defection of the bishops and clergy, as stated 
in chap. 10. 

The second vial was poured out " upon the sea," which 
as a symbol we have shown to denote vast masses of 
corrupt people, from the midst of whom corrupt and 
wicked rulers might arise, as monsters from the sea. 
This was most emphatically realised during this same 
Revolution of '93-4 when Royalty was dethroned, and 
the ruling powers were taken trom the ranks of the 
people, and often from the lowest classes during that 
terrible "reign of terror," " and it (the sea) became as 
the blood of a dead man." About one- tenth of the 
population of France (3,000.000 ) were ruthlessly mur- 
dered in this '"great earthquake, and the tenth pari of 
the city fell" (Rev. 11-13). 

The third vial was poured out " upon the rivers and 
fountains of waters : and they became as blood.' 1 These, 
according to the explanation of the angel in Rev. 17-15, 
indicate states and communities of people as distinguished 
from kingdoms, and is only a restricted duplicate of the 
last vial, to show the widespread cry for blood in this 
time when every man's hand was against his neighbor. 
The sixth verse very plainly indicates the reason of this 
terrible retribution, and who should be the victims of it, 



352 APPENDIX. 



as a fitting reward for the St. Bartholomew massacre and 
for the Albigenses and Waldenses who were ruthlessly 
slain by the people and soldiers of France at the bidding 
of the Pope. 

" The fourth angel poured out his vial upon the Sun," 
which is a symbol of the highest dignitary in Church or 
State. The judicial murder of the King and Queen of 
France, and the terrific indignities heaped upon Pius 

VI. and Pius VII. by Napoleon, will fill all the require- 
ments of this vial. Some of these have been shown in 
chap. 10, but a tithe was not told. The Catholic religion 
had been completely overthrown by the Assembly and 
the people of France, and when for political reasons 
Napoleon re-instated it, it was degraded in the eyes of 
the Church dignitaries by being put on a level with all 
other religions, and not the slightest sign of its former 
power was allowed or even hinted at. 

Napoleon compelled the attendance of Pope Pius 

VII. at his coronation, "not to confer a crown but to 
adorn a ceremony." Could humiliation be more com- 
plete ! Yes, for the fifth vial was poured out " upon the 
seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness." 
This limits the time and place of these events with un- 
mistakable certainty, for no facts of history so completely 
fill the conditions of the prophecy as the spoliation of the 
Vatican treasures, the heavy indemnity levied, the dis- 
memberment of the States of the Church, and the Pope's 
power declared to be ended. Napoleon further degraded 
him by making him a French subject and a salaried de- 



APPENDIX. 353 



pendant of the French Court, with an annual income 
of £80,000. 

The sixth vial we have already spoken of as relating 
to the quiet drying up of Turkey. The seventh vial is 
yet to be poured out and is near at hand. 

The revolutions of 1848, when every throne in the 
Latin World "reeled to and fro like a drunken man,"' 
gave evidence of their tottering condition, while the 
closing scenes of the (Ecumenical Council and the prepa- 
rations to deify the Pope, became the occasion of other 
misfortunes " to consume and destroy his kingdom unto 
the end." 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



010 460 638 6 


frfrfoiitiil 



•** » z «uwa.>ji&_ tanevts s»-w« av.r«ir •%*« 



: 


I! 



